Aston Villa set up their all-English Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest

Ollie Watkins scored again as Aston Villa knocked Bologna out of the Europa League in a 4-0 defeat on Thursday, setting up an all-English semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

Unai Emery’s team reached their second European semi-final in three seasons with a 7–1 aggregate victory.

Watkins scored twice in last week’s 3-1 quarter-final first leg victory in Italy, and the striker set the pace at Villa Park.

He tapped in a low cross from the left from Morgan Rogers to give Villa a 1-0 lead after 16 minutes for his 100th goal.

Rogers had a golden opportunity to increase the lead, but Bologna goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia saved his penalty.

But Villa doubled their lead a minute later when Emiliano Buendía scored from a tight angle.

READ | Watkins strikes twice for Aston Villa in the 3-1 win over Bologna

Rogers made it 3-0 with another hook shot in the 39th, and Ezri Konsa completed the scoring seconds before the final whistle.

Villa reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season and are on course to secure a place in the lucrative top-flight competition next season, while finishing fourth in the Premier League.

Forest reached the semi-finals by beating Porto 1-0 in a successful return to European competition after a thirty-year absence. The team was 2-1 on aggregate after last week’s draw in Portugal.

Morgan Gibbs-White put the hosts ahead in the 12th minute with a deflected effort from outside the penalty area after Porto defender Jan Bednarek was sent off for a foul on Chris Wood, who subsequently had to be substituted with a knee injury.

Wood is a key striker for relegation-threatened Nottingham – and New Zealand’s World Cup plans – and only recently returned from a long-term knee injury.

Porto have never beaten a Premier League club in England in 24 attempts.

The last time Nottingham reached a European semi-final was in 1984 in the UEFA Cup.

Freiburg reached the semi-finals by beating Celta Vigo 3-1.

The Bundesliga team reached the last four in a European competition for the first time with an aggregate score of 6-1, following last week’s 3-0 win in the first leg of the quarter-final.

Freiburg scored eleven goals in the last three games in the second division.

Igor Matanović put Freiburg 1-0 up with a beautiful left-footed volley from outside the penalty area. Yuito Suzuki doubled the lead late in the first half with a deflected shot and beat goalkeeper Ionut Radu after the break.

Williot Swedberg’s consolation goal came in injury time for the Spanish hosts.

Freiburg’s next opponent will be Braga, who came from two goals down to win 4-2 at Real Betis after those teams were tied 1-1 from the first leg.

Crystal Palace reached a last four spot in the third-tier Conference League despite a 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina in Florence.

Palace advanced 4-2 on aggregate after a 3-0 home win in the first leg against Ukrainian side Shakhtar, who advanced past AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

Strasbourg and Rayo Vallecano also advanced.

The Italian football crisis only got worse with the European exits for Bologna and Fiorentina.

As a result, Italy no longer has a single club in a European semi-final for the first time in seven years.

That came after Atalanta – the only Italian club to reach the round of 16 of the Champions League – was eliminated in a whopping 10-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich.

Published on April 17, 2026