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Aston Villa midfielder Tielemans reveals secret behind volley that inspired Europa triumph

AF

AFP

Published 1 month ago

Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans revealed his superb opener in the 3-0 Europa League final victory over Freiburg was the result of just one day's practice.

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tielemans-youri/GtkTQyib/"]Tielemans[/a] blasted [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/aston-villa/W00wmLO0/"]Villa[/a] into the lead late in the first half [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/aston-villa-W00wmLO0/freiburg-fiEQZ7C7/?mid=IefockNE"]at the Besiktas Stadium on Wednesday[/a] with a fine finish straight off the training ground.[/p][p]The Belgian midfielder made a perfectly-timed run to meet [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rogers-morgan/lp4jm80n/"]Morgan Rogers[/a]' cross from a short corner and finished the move with a blistering volley from just inside the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/freiburg/fiEQZ7C7/"]Freiburg[/a] area.[/p][p]Unai Emery's side struck again through another eye-catching goal on the stroke of half-time as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/buendia-emiliano/dYDvGYIu/"]Emiliano Buendia[/a] curled into the far corner from 18 yards.[/p][p]Rogers' second-half goal wrapped up Villa's first trophy for 30 years and their first in Europe since 1982.[/p][image alt="Tielemans stats vs Freiburg" id="24268274-bfe8-45b4-b1fd-d7d23f16bf6b" credit-line="ČTK / imago sportfotodienst / JOERAN STEINSIEK / Opta by StatsPerform" guid="86b73032-8e6a-4bc3-9996-d966f98a66d8" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p][b]"I feel amazing. My voice is a bit gone but it's all good. We put in a shift, top performance, we had a great season. To top it off with this, it's amazing," [/b]Tielemans said.[/p][p][b]"We only had one day to practise, we did it on Monday and it went brilliantly tonight. So happy."[/b][/p][p]Villa's memorable finish to the season also included qualifying for the Champions League last week.[/p][p]Tielemans admitted their success was a far cry from the dismal start to the campaign, which featured six winless games and only two goals scored.[/p][p][b]"It's amazing. It's been a season with a lot of ups and downs. We started so so bad. Our standards were very poor," [/b]he said.[/p][p][b]"The way we turned things around was a credit to the players and staff.[/b][/p][p][b]"We kept working, believing. We got the win in the end, Champions League next season and a trophy."[/b][/p][embed guid="6ac22e28-5c6e-466d-a332-a549a28b4205" url="https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/2057207233675759659" social-type="twitter" /][p]England midfielder Rogers added: [b]"It's hard to put into words, we've worked so hard for this. We've delivered and come through.[/b][/p][p][b]"It's a great moment for the fans, great for the club. We'll go down in history.[/b][/p][p][b]"The manager has been banging on at me to get easier goals and get into the box. I'm happy I could get a toe onto it and score."[/b][/p]

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