Emiliano Martínez and John McGinn: Aston Villa's European Final Journey

Emiliano Martínez stands on the brink of a European final convinced he made the biggest save of his Aston Villa career without even pulling on his gloves.

He stayed.

Twelve months on from what looked, felt and sounded like a farewell, the 33-year-old World Cup winner is one match away from adding a European title to his remarkable journey. Villa face Freiburg in Istanbul on Wednesday, chasing their first major trophy in 30 years, and their goalkeeper is certain he chose correctly when he turned away from the exit door.

From tearful goodbye to European brink

At the end of the 2024-25 campaign, after the final whistle against Tottenham at Villa Park, Martínez walked around the pitch in tears, waving to the supporters. It had all the hallmarks of a goodbye. He was close to leaving, close to ending a spell that began when he joined from Arsenal in September 2020.

He thought he was going. The fans thought he was going.

He stayed instead, and now talks about Villa not as a stepping stone, but as home.

“I said goodbye and I cried when I left my family from Argentina to England, and I'm still with family,” he said, drawing a line between the life he left behind and the one he has built in Birmingham.

Football shifts quickly. Managers change, squads turn over, ambitions rise and fall. Martínez has ridden all of it and made clear his loyalty has not wavered.

“Sometimes football can change, managers come and go. It doesn’t mean I don’t have full respect and love for the club. I had a commitment with Aston Villa, I am a World Cup winner with Aston Villa and I won two golden gloves.

“I will always and forever love this club no matter what. Some day I’ll retire and someone else will go between the sticks.”

That last line lands with the weight of someone who knows his place in the club’s story and wants to write a few more chapters yet.

Emery, belief and a united dressing room

If Martínez is the emotional heartbeat at the back, Unai Emery is the architect on the touchline. The goalkeeper is unambiguous about the man in charge.

“We have a top coach – we don’t wish [to have] anyone else on the bench apart from him leading us to a European final,” he said.

This is a squad that has grown used to punching upwards, and Martínez believes their collective edge has carried them to Istanbul.

“When we stick together and fight together we can beat anybody. I am really proud to stay and I made the right choice.”

That sense of shared purpose has turned Villa from a side flirting with the wrong end of the table into one now preparing for one of the biggest nights in the club’s modern history.

Penalties in his blood

Martínez built a global reputation for thriving in chaos from 12 yards. The World Cup, countless shoot-outs, the swagger, the stare-downs – this is his arena.

He would still rather avoid it.

He wants the job done inside 90 minutes, even if part of him relishes the alternative.

“I always have shoot-outs in my mind. It’s something I really enjoy, it’s like different competition, I don’t know how to explain it,” he said.

“Hopefully ‘Ginny’ (John McGinn) scores two goals and we finish in 90 minutes but if not I prepared and back myself every day of the week in shoot-outs.”

There is no bravado in that, just cold confidence. If it comes down to penalties under the lights in Istanbul, Villa know they have a specialist waiting in goal.

McGinn’s proudest night

At the other end of the pitch, and at the heart of the dressing room, stands John McGinn. Signed in 2018, promoted from the Championship, he has lived through the narrow escapes and the nervous springs. Now he walks out as captain in a European final.

The 31-year-old has underpinned Villa’s surge this season, scoring 10 goals across all competitions and driving Emery’s side with his usual blend of energy and bite.

Asked if leading Villa out in Istanbul will be the proudest moment of his career, he did not hesitate.

“I would say so, yeah. It has been a brilliant journey, full of ups and downs, close moments, very close to going back to the Championship,” he said.

“It fills me with pride as to where the club is now and it also fills me with pride as to where this club could go, like the manager has touched upon, this isn’t something we want to come here, celebrate and have a fanfare, we want to be focused on this match.

“We know how difficult it is to get to a final.

“But if you ask me on a personal level, throughout the years I have been here, definitely this is the proudest moment as captain here.”

That perspective matters. McGinn has seen the thin margins that separate Villa’s present from a very different reality. Relegation battles. Promotion scraps. Now a European showpiece.

Thirty years of waiting

For the club, this is more than a one-off occasion. Thirty years without a trophy weighs heavily on an institution of Villa’s size. The wait has spanned generations of supporters and entire careers of players.

Martínez and McGinn carry that history into Istanbul, but they do so with the clarity of men who have already walked through pressure and come out the other side. One is a World Cup winner who nearly walked away last summer. The other is a promotion hero who dragged Villa back to the elite and now leads them onto one of the grandest stages.

They have both chosen to see Villa not just as a stop on the journey, but as the destination.

Now comes the question that will define this era: does that loyalty get its reward under the lights of Istanbul, or does the wait go on?