Pep Guardiola bid an emotional farewell to Manchester City as a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday brought down the curtain on a glittering decade under the Catalan.

From humble beginnings in Scotland to captaining Aston Villa to European success, John McGinn's rise has never followed the obvious path.

Aston Villa ended their 30-year trophy drought in style as spectacular goals from Youri Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia inspired a 3-0 win against Freiburg in the Europa League final

Aston Villa are taking inspiration from the club's former European champions as they seek to end their 30-year trophy drought in the Europa League final against Freiburg on Wednesday.

Aston Villa secured Champions League football with a 4-2 win over Liverpool on Friday that leaves the Reds still at risk of missing out on Europe's elite competition next season.

It's Aston Villa's first major European final since it triumphed over Bayern Munich in the European Cup in 1982.

Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-2 to seal a return to the Champions League next season, while Tottenham climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Nottingham Forest seized the advantage in their Europa League semi-final against Aston Villa as Chris Wood's penalty sealed a 1-0 win in the first leg on Thursday.

Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, two clubs rich in European history, are one step from a first continental final in decades as they meet in the last four of the Europa League.

Aston Villa demolished Bologna and Nottingham Forest beat Porto in the Europa League on Thursday to set up an all-English showdown in the semi-finals.

Vincent Kompany's perennial German champions will face South Korean team Jeju SK on August 4 and then fly to Hong Kong to meet Premier League Villa three days later.

La Liga sides Real Betis and Celta Vigo also advanced to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Manchester United bolstered their bid to qualify for the Champions League with a vital 3-1 win against top-four rivals Aston Villa on Sunday.

UEFA Europa League Round of 16: Nottingham Forest and Real Betis suffered defeat to Midtjylland and Panathinaikos respectively.

Unai Emery's Villa, who finished second in the league phase of this season's competition, behind another French side in Lyon, will go to northern France for the first leg on March 12 before the return in Birmingham on March 19.

Nico O'Reilly scored both goals for Pep Guardiola's team and extended Manchester City's unbeaten run in the league to five.

Aston Villa's Premier League title challenge was hit after being held to a 1-1 draw at home to relegation-fighting Leeds on Saturday.

Liverpool advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup by defeating Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 at Anfield.