Credit: Imago

Oliver Walton

Wed 20 May 2026 21:54, UK

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Freiburg were beaten 3-0 by Aston Villa in the Europa League final as Unai Emery ended their 30-year wait for major silverware at the Besiktas Park

Youri Tielemans opened the scoring in the 41st minute with a sumptuous volley from Morgan Rogers’ cross that flew past Noah Atubolu.

Villa were in dreamland seven minutes later as Emi Buendia curled home from long range to make it 2-0 in added time at the end of the first half.

Morgan Rogers then sealed the Villans’ first major trophy since 1996 as he slid in to tap Buendia’s low cross past Atubolu just before the hour mark.

Francois Letexier was the man in the middle for Aston Villa’s biggest match in decades, and Football Insider have looked at three decisions that he got wrong in Istanbul.

Emi Buendia shouldn’t have been booked for Jan-Niklas Beste clash

Buendia was the first Villa player to go into the book after a quarter of an hour as he was deemed to have caught Beste in the face with his arm.

The Freiburg winger went down dramatically before Letexier duly produced a yellow card for Buendia, but replays showed that there was no force in the challenge from the Villa man.

With it being so early in the game, and since there was very little actual contact with Beste’s face from the Villa star’s arm, Letexier should simply have played on rather than getting his card out.

Matty Cash was fortunate to avoid red for studs-up challenge on Vincenzo Grifo

Cash lunged in on the Freiburg captain in the 21st minute of the final and was subsequently booked by the French referee.

Replays showed that the Poland star caught Grifo’s shin with his studs up, but the challenge was checked and cleared by VAR official Jerome Bisard.

Had Letexier been watching the tackle attentively, he would surely have brandished a red card.

Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has told Football Insider that Cash should have been sent off, and it felt as if Letexier shirked away from the responsibility due to the huge stature of the game.

Victor Lindelof deserved a yellow card for foul on Johan Manzambi

If Buendia did not deserve a booking, then teammate Lindelof can count himself lucky that he was not shown a yellow later on in the first half.

The former Man United man put in a rash challenge on Freiburg playmaker Manzambi in the 35th minute, and while Letexier blew for a free-kick, he somehow failed to produce a card.

Lindelof wrapped his leg around Manzambi and caught him on the foot with little attempt to play the ball, and it caused the Freiburg man some damage as physios were called on, so obviously should have been a booking.