19:50 CET - With just over an hour before kick-off, team news is officially in for the 2025/26 Europa League final!
19:00 CET - Good evening and welcome to the Europa League final from Istanbul! This is a mammoth night for both Freiburg and Aston Villa. Freiburg have never won a major trophy, and this is quite simply the biggest night in the club's history. As for Aston Villa, they have waited 30 years to win a major trophy, and their last European glory came in 1982.
So the wait has been long for both fanbases, and with Champions League football also on the line for Freiburg (Aston Villa have already qualified), there is so much at stake. Unai Emery's incredible record in this competition, which has seen him win four out of five Europa League finals, makes his Villa side even bigger favourites than they already were.
Read more about Emery's history in Europa League finals here.
Whereas Villa are all but guaranteed to finish fourth in the most competitive league in the world, Freiburg finished just seventh in the Bundesliga.
However, whilst all of that is true and Villa are favourites for a reason, head coach Julian Schuster has done a brilliant job on his managerial European debut campaign.
Freiburg have lost just twice en route to the final, qualified seventh in the league phase and have scored an impressive 15 goals in six knockout games to book their ticket in this showpiece event.
A richly deserved achievement.