Aston Villa delivered a dominant performance at Villa Park on Thursday evening, thrashing Nottingham Forest 4-0 in the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg. The comprehensive victory secured a 4-1 aggregate win, booking Villa's place in the final against SC Freiburg—their first European final in 44 years.

The match kicked off with Villa immediately on the front foot. Stefan Ortega was called into action early, tipping Pau Torres' header over the bar. Youri Tielemans then came close, heading just wide from a corner as the hosts piled on the pressure.

The breakthrough came in the 36th minute when Ollie Watkins combined brilliantly with Emi Buendia to slot home the opener. Watkins nearly doubled the lead moments later, but his curling effort was pushed away by an alert Ortega.

Villa picked up right where they left off after the break. Just four minutes into the second half, John McGinn whipped a dangerous ball across the face of goal, but Morgan Rogers couldn't get on the end of it. The pressure finally told when Torres was fouled in the box, and Buendia calmly converted the penalty to make it 2-0.

Rogers thought he had added a third on the hour mark, only for his celebration to be cut short by an offside flag. Undeterred, Villa continued to push forward, with McGinn forcing another fine save from Ortega with a first-time shot.

Forest showed brief signs of life on the counter-attack. Hutchinson's cross found Igor Jesus at the far post, but he steered his header wide. Chris Wood then squandered a golden opportunity, denied one-on-one by the quick reflexes of Emi Martinez.

McGinn put the result beyond doubt in the 77th minute, finding the far corner with a brilliant first-time finish. Three minutes later, he completed his masterclass and the scoring, sending Villa Park into raptures and securing a historic European final berth.