The first goal that AFC Bournemouth ever scored in Europe could be heard out on the Bay of Biscay. A tradition from Real Sociedad’s old Atotxa ground, once lost but now recovered at Anoeta, dictates that a single flare is set off every time the visitors score while two are lit when the home team do; that way those out to sea know the score. And so it was that at 21.41 on a Thursday night in September 2026, Justin Kluivert found the net and a man named Juan Iturralde ran out into the street to let everyone know what had happened.

Back in Dorset and high in Anoeta, where 2,000 Bournemouth fans sang their way through this most special of occasions, they knew. They had waited their whole lives for this and it was a nice way to mark the history they made, their arrival announced to Europe with fireworks and a 2-1 victory in San Sebastián, the city where it all began for Andoni Iraola, the manager who brought them here.

It was worth the wait for Crystal Palace. After being denied their rightful place in the Europa League last season, Pierre Sage’s side made the perfect debut by brushing aside Lech Poznan with a victory that will take some of the heat off their new manager.

The Frenchman has big shoes to fill in replacing Oliver Glasner after his predecessor won three trophies in the space of 12 months and there had been some talk of disquiet behind the scenes following his decision to drop the teenager Jaydee Canvot at the weekend. But while Palace face a testing trip to face in-form Leeds on Sunday, having conceded 11 goals from their opening four Premier League matches, they were given a big helping hand by their opponents here well before Radoslaw Murawski was sent off late on for a reckless foul on Canvot.

A good night for Bournemouth and Palace but a miserable one for Celtic

TNT’s Connie McLaughlin asks Celtic boss Martin O’Neill to “talk to us about the thinking behind” replacing goalkeeper Sam Johnstone with Viljami Sinisalo … and receives an unnecessarily abrupt and cranky response. “No I’ll not talk to you about the thinking behind that … he was always going to play … believe it or not, Connie, my job is not actually to explain every single situation to you … do you know what I’ll do? … I’ll tell the fans … through my Celtic TV.”

Would he like to talk about the other three changes? “No, absolutely not … I don’t want to be ruinous here of this situation … start again, and tell me all about it … give me the rest of the changes … [McLaughlin tells him] … I’m delighted you’re taking about James Forrest … he’s been a fantastic player … getting on a little bit … he’s been a fantastic impact sub … let’s see what he can do … can he last the game? … I doubt it very much … thank you.”

Club legend Steve Fletcher reflects on the wild rise over two decades to playing Real Sociedad in the Europa League

It is 13 years since Bournemouth, a couple of months after finishing runners-up to Doncaster in the third tier, hosted Real Madrid. It was a balmy summer’s day, officially Carlo Ancelotti’s first match in charge, and, a few hours after checking into the Haven hotel on the Sandbanks peninsula, a wave of galácticos took to the pitch: Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Kaká, Karim Benzema, the list goes on.

An early, wayward Ronaldo free-kick broke the wrist of an 11-year‑old boy before Madrid ran out 6-0 winners in a bucket-list friendly.

Granit Xhaka, Sunderland’s captain, believes it is not unrealistic to dream about Régis Le Bris’s side travelling all the way to the Europa League final next spring.

It is rarely a good idea to dismiss Xhaka but reaching that showpiece in Frankfurt will necessitate considerably more efficient finishing on his team’s part than proved evident on a highly evocative night on Wearside.

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Four changes from Sunderland’s narrow defeat to Arsenal at the weekend: Ballard, Brobbey, Angulo and Meunier drop to the bench, with Alderete, Hume, Isidor and Fofana coming in.

Sunderland (4-2-3-1) Roefs; Mukiele, Danso, Alderete, Mandava; Xhaka (c), Sadiki; Hume, Le Fée, Fofana; Isidor.
Subs: Moore, Ballard, Methalie, Brobbey, Angulo, Rigg, Meunier, O’Nien, Ahoka, Jones, Tutierov, Proctor.

Captain looking forward to intimidating atmosphere when Wearsiders host AZ, after 53 years away

When Sunderland last played European football, club directors viewed it as a useful means of raising the cash necessary to fund floodlight upgrades at Roker Park necessitated by England’s widespread adoption of colour television.

Back in the autumn of 1973 a lighting system compatible with the demands of broadcasting in black and white was proving increasingly outdated and Sunderland responded by doubling admission prices for the second leg of their opening European Cup Winners’ Cup tie against Vasas of Budapest. Coming at a moment when miners and railway workers were engaged in long-running industrial action and north-easterners’ finances were duly tight, it dictated that a disappointing crowd of under 23,000 turned out to watch Dennis Tueart’s penalty secure a 3-0 aggregate win.

• Celtic will host Marseille and travel to Benfica

• Brighton and Hearts play Monaco in Conference League

Bournemouth and Sunderland will play mouthwatering ties against Milan in their Europa League campaigns, while the Crystal Palace head coach, Pierre Sage, faces a return to his previous employers Lyon.

The Cherries’ first season in Europe will bring Milan, the seven-times continental champions, to Dean Court in a match-up that once seemed unthinkable. In 2006-07, when Milan won their most recent Champions League title, Bournemouth finished 19th in League One. Sunderland will make the trip to San Siro to face Ruben Amorim’s side during their first season in Europe since 1973-74.

• 10-man Rangers hang on for 1-0 win against Jablonec

• Tromsø 0-0 Brighton; Hearts 2-2 Rapid Vienna

Ryan Naderi’s second-half strike gave an unconvincing Rangers a narrow 1-0 win in the first leg of their Conference League playoff tie against Czech side Jablonec at Ibrox. Derek McInnes got his first win as Rangers manager at the fifth time of asking with a 5-1 thumping of St Mirren on Sunday but there was regression in the goalless first half which brought boos at the interval whistle.

The Govan side pepped up after the break and Naderi opened the scoring from close range in the 50th minute but in the 78th minute the substitute Cammy Devlin was sent off – minutes after coming off the bench – for a high tackle on Jiri Slama to leave Rangers to see out the game with 10 men.

• Rangers 1-1 Jagiellonia Bialystok (2-3 agg)

• Spirited Hearts hold Benfica but also out of competition

Derek McInnes’s fledgling tenure as Rangers manager is in disarray after his side exited the Europa League qualifiers with a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok after drawing 1-1 at Ibrox.

Rangers had lost 2-1 in the first leg in Poland last week but there was optimism when the captain, Lawrence Shankland, levelled the tie on aggregate with a penalty on 19 minutes.

• Heavy fog had meant planes unable to land in Faroes

• Thursday’s match was subsequently postponed to Friday

Poland’s champions Lech Poznan will play their Europa League second leg against the Faroese champions KÍ Klaksvík, originally scheduled for Thursday, a day later after their travel to the Faroe Islands was severely disrupted by heavy fog.

Lech won 1-0 in the first leg in Poznan thanks to a late goal from Ivorian striker Yannick Agnero, but on Thursday they were locked in a chaotic race against time to reach the islands for kick-off.

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With the Arsenal Fun Boat having finally docked at its destination on Tuesday after a 22-year voyage, attention on Wednesday turned to Aston Villa’s Crazy Train as its passengers alighted in Istanbul. Having passed away last summer, Ozzy Osbourne, whose famous anthem serves as Villa’s walk-on music, was not present to see his team lift Bigger Vase but the ease with which they strolled to victory would certainly have met with his approval. In spanking three goals without reply past Freiberg, Unai Emery’s side ended a trophy drought that stretched back 30 years and for their Spanish manager it marked a fifth success in the competition with three different teams. It is a state of affairs rendered all the more remarkable by the weird quirk that each of them has ‘villa’ in their names.

Regarding songs to play during VAR decisions (Football Daily letters passim) how about Rise by Public Image Ltd, featuring the oft repeated line: ‘I could be wrong I could be right’?” – Adrian Bradshaw.

Why stop with VAR music to fill dead spots in games? Imagine, the next time a player goes down, hearing that memorable opening line from Johnny Cash, “I hear the trainer coming!” What? Oh” – John Nielsen-Gammon.

A doff of the cap to the great Unai Emery, who won the Uefa Emery League yet again last night but also achieved a rare, unprecedented double this season as he also got promotion to Primera Federación, the third tier of Spanish football, in April with Real Union, which he has been the owner of since 2021 (his father and grandfather used to play for them)” – Noble Francis

Re Steve McClaren and his new role at Rotherham (Football Daily passim, full email edition), do you think he thought it was Rotterdam and he got confused by the accent?” – Dan J Levy.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Europa League glory kicked off scenes of royal ribbing, ski goggles on the team bus and knee slides with nephews

It was 1.43am in Istanbul when Aston Villa’s players began to make tracks for their hotel, over the road from the rubber ring-like Besiktas Park. Matty Cash walked into a windowless basement at the stadium, bottle of Efes in hand, and toasted a Europa League victory that will be etched in history, the club’s first trophy in three decades. “The king set the gameplan out for us,” he said of Unai Emery, who, if he was not there already, now has a god-like status among the fans.

Moments earlier, John McGinn joked that Prince William, who joined the players for beers amid the dressing-room celebrations, might “get his credit card out” and stump up for a free bar. Villa’s billionaire co-owners, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, were also in attendance, the former delighted that Emery had delivered on his promise to put another piece of silverware in a trophy cabinet that had been gathering dust. “It means a lot,” Sawiris said, wearing a Villa scarf. “I can’t express myself with words. Amazing. Very special. An eight-year ride and we saw today what hard work can do with Unai’s effort and the whole team.” Asked what’s next, there came a reminder of Villa’s ambition. “The sky’s the limit,” he replied.

Unai Emery has reconfirmed his status as master of the competition, but will now want to set his sights higher

There are two ways to win a final. You can win it by the odd goal, amid a frenzy of anxiety so the final whistle comes as a relief. Or you can win it as a procession, flexing your superiority, so the final whistle is almost resented for spoiling the fun. For Aston Villa, this was very much the latter. If their fans had dreamed the previous night of how they might win the game, they could barely have come up with something so satisfying and emphatic.

It’s true that Villa have a budget around 2.8 times that of Freiburg, and that they have been strong favourites in almost every game in the Europa League this season. But then in the Premier League they’re often fighting against sides with far greater resources. The poles of European and domestic football may have flipped, but that is not their fault nor, at least for now, their concern. They have not been a successful enough club – at least in the past 100 years – to decline to fully celebrate any trophy that comes their way. A second European success, 44 years after the first, is history.

• Manager relishes ‘challenge’ of Champions League return

• Emi Martínez reveals he played game with broken finger

For Aston Villa, the Europa League must only be the beginning, Unai Emery insisted after winning the trophy for a fifth time. Beating Freiburg 3-0 on Wednesday evening brought Villa’s first major piece silverware since the League Cup in 1996, but Emery is determined this should not be the summit of their achievements. He again rejected the tag of “king of the Europa League”, preferring to focus on “now” and, by implication, the future.

“Next year we will play in Champions League and this is the challenge,” the Aston Villa manager said. “The best teams in the world are there and it will challenge us a lot. The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world. To be fighting top seven, top five, top four is something very difficult. Hopefully we can be close with teams like City and Arsenal.

Where would you like your statue, Mr Emery? Even before this emphatic Europa League triumph, Aston Villa supporters could hardly have held their manager in greater esteem. But now Emery, in winning the competition for a record fifth time, has delivered the thing he always wanted, a trophy to show for his transformative body of work.

Those who were not around for Rotterdam in 1982 will always cherish Istanbul in 2026. Thomas Tuchel had it right a few years ago when he suggested Uefa might as well rename the Europa League the Unai Emery trophy.

Departures of club legend and star players have not stopped modest German side reaching showpiece with Aston Villa

It’s about the journey, perhaps even more than the destination. That is the feeling of SC Freiburg before the biggest match in their history. Regardless of the result in Wednesday’s Europa League final against Aston Villa in Istanbul, the club will be present at a reception in the city on their Thursday return to acknowledge the moment and the compelling season that has taken them there.

There are many extraordinary elements to a club that have never won a major trophy – the closest they came was losing on penalties to RB Leipzig in the 2022 DFB Pokal final – arriving at such a showpiece, but for most in Germany the true wonder is that they have managed it without Christian Streich. The longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga stood down in 2024 having served Freiburg continuously in several roles for almost three decades, including as the first team’s head coach for the final 12 and a half.

John McGinn will lead out team in final against Freiburg seven years after helping them win promotion with club chasing a first major European trophy since 1982

As Aston Villa arrived at Besiktas Park on the banks of the Bosphorus, for one last training session before the real thing, it was impossible not to consider the journey to the Europa League final. John McGinn, who will lead Villa out as captain in Istanbul, was in the side promoted from the Championship via the playoff final seven years ago. Tyrone Mings also started that day at Wembley and across the course of the following 12 months Villa built a spine that will be central to their hopes of winning their first major European trophy since 1982.

It is why McGinn’s mind goes back to a 3-0 league defeat at Wigan and a midweek trip to Rotherham in the season they clinched promotion, averting a likely financial disaster. Tammy Abraham, then on loan from Chelsea, also began the playoff final victory over Derby. “If we lose that match, are Aston Villa here at the minute?” McGinn says. “Probably not. For us, tomorrow night, it will be nice to see the supporters who were there at Rotherham away, Wigan away, nights like that on a Tuesday evening when it’s very easy to stay at home. They deserve it just as much as the players do and hopefully we can give them something to remember.”

Aston Villa and Crystal Palace’s runs to European finals are historic achievements, but symptomatic of a worrying trend

There will be no doubting Unai Emery’s supremacy in the Europa League if he is reacquainted with the trophy in Istanbul this month. A fifth title would add to the Aston Villa manager’s legend and it would show he can do it with an English club. The latter achievement, though, may be diminished in value. A greater concern lies in the way that Premier League clubs, gradually but discernibly, are dominating Europe’s smaller competitions in a way Uefa surely could never have intended.

Villa will be the eighth English finalists from the last 22 teams to reach the Europa League’s showpiece. Should they win, it would be the first time since the first two years of the Uefa Cup, its predecessor with the same trophy, that sides from England have won the secondary tournament in consecutive seasons. They would build on Tottenham’s haphazard triumph of last May and while neither consistency nor relative excellence should be sniffed at their progress contributes to a concerning broader trend.