{"id":3266,"date":"2026-05-02T16:04:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:04:43","slug":"the-best-all-english-europa-league-ties-as-nottingham-forest-and-aston-villa-battle-in-high-stakes-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=3266","title":{"rendered":"The best all-English Europa League ties as Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa battle in high-stakes semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa meet in an all-English Europa League semi-final tonight.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The Midlands rivals will battle it out for a place in a European final, with Forest the hosts for tonight&#8217;s first leg. In the opposition dug-out, Unai Emery will be aiming to win his fifth Europa League crown and end Aston Villa&#8217;s 30-year wait for a major trophy.<\/div>\n<p>Ahead of the game, we&#8217;ve remembered some of the very best all-English UEFA Cup and Europa League ties.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\">Wolves vs Tottenham, 1971\/72 UEFA Cup final<\/h5>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The first-ever UEFA Cup final was contested between English teams as Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur went head-to-head over two legs.<\/div>\n<p>Wolves had finished above Spurs in the First Division, but it was the North Londoners who took control of the tie. Martin Chivers scored twice in a 2-1 win at Molineux, before Spurs sealed success after a 1-1 draw in the return. A place in history was secured as the inaugural winners of the competition.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\">Liverpool v Tottenham, 1972\/73 UEFA Cup semi-final<\/h5>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The following season, Spurs met English opposition again in the competition&#8217;s latter stages. Liverpool were the opposition, with the Reds aiming to end a seven-year trophy drought under Bill Shankly. Alec Lindsay&#8217;s early goal earned Liverpool a 1-0 win at Anfield, but Martin Peters levelled the tie in the return.<\/div>\n<p>A tight contest was eventually broken open when Steve Heighway netted an away goal for Liverpool, the decisive moment of the tie. Peters&#8217; second was not enough to save Spurs, as Liverpool progressed to a final against Borussia Monchengladbach. Shankly&#8217;s side won 3-2 on aggregate, sealing a UEFA Cup and league double.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\">Liverpool vs Manchester United &#8211; 2015\/16 Round of 16<\/h5>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The first all-English meeting since the competition&#8217;s Europa League rebrand came in 2015\/16, as arch-rivals Liverpool and Manchester United met in Europe for the first time.<\/div>\n<p>Daniel Sturridge and Roberto Firmino secured a 2-0 first-leg win for Liverpool under new manager Jurgen Klopp, but Anthony Martial&#8217;s opener in the return put the tie in the balance. Philippe Coutinho&#8217;s cheeky chip at Old Trafford equalised and ended the tie as a contest.<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\">Chelsea v Arsenal, 2018\/19 Europa League final<\/h5>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">An all-London Europa League final took centre stage in 2019, as Chelsea and Arsenal met in Azerbaijan.<\/div>\n<p>A one-sided affair was the perfect send-off for outgoing Chelsea great Eden Hazard, who scored twice and created another in a 4-1 win for the Blues. Former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud was also on target, as serial winner Unai Emery suffered a rare Europa League loss.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chelsea vs Arsenal (4-1) | UEFA Europa League Final Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nFiXNfcQQzU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"heading-content\">Tottenham vs Manchester United &#8211; 2025 Europa League Final<\/h5>\n<p>A high-stakes shootout saw Spurs and Manchester United contest last season&#8217;s final, with both enduring miserable Premier League campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester United were mired in 15th, while Spurs were struggling even more and 17th in the top flight. The final provided the perfect chance to salvage their seasons and secure a spot in the Champions League for the following campaign.<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Brennan Johnson&#8217;s goal decided a snore-fest of a showpiece and ended Spurs&#8217; 17-year wait for a trophy. It was not enough to save Ange Postecoglou, however, who was sacked in the summer.<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spurs End 17-Year Wait For Trophy \ud83c\udfc6 | Tottenham 1-0 Man United | UEFA Europa League Final Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/69bHE7Os714?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--$!--><template data-dgst=\"BAILOUT_TO_CLIENT_SIDE_RENDERING\"\/><!--\/$--><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa meet in an all-English Europa League semi-final tonight. The Midlands&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}