Despite missing out on the Europa League title, Julian Schuster believes Freiburg will improve.

Freiburg lost 0-3 to Premier League side Aston Villa in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League final after conceding goals in both halves. Manager Julian Schuster stated that this experience will help his team return to the competition stronger and congratulated Unai Emery's team on their championship victory.

In the first half, Tielemans and Buendia scored to give Aston Villa a 2-0 lead. In the second half, Buendia assisted Morgan Rodgers to score, making it 3-0.

In the end, Freiburg lost 0-3 to Aston Villa at Besiktaş Stadium, failing to claim the championship title.

Freiburg manager Julian Schuster said, "Congratulations to Aston Villa, they have performed exceptionally well throughout the season. Both teams were very competitive from the start, and apart from Morgan Rodgers' chance, neither side actually created many opportunities."

“We knew set pieces would be a key factor in the game, and in fact, we created the first set-piece opportunity. But then we conceded a goal because of a perfectly executed set-piece combination. In that situation, the team had to stay calm, but then the second goal came, and from then on, we started to struggle. One goal became two, and then three.”

Julian Schuster pointed out, "Even when we were down 0-2, there was still a chance to turn the game around, and we believed we could turn things around. However, Aston Villa is a very professional team, and they won't give their opponents any chances. Against a team like that, you have to be almost perfect."

"We are certainly very disappointed, but we can learn from this experience and come back stronger. We know our capabilities, and this experience will make us stronger."

In addition, Freiburg striker Igor Matanovic said, "Our performance throughout the tournament was actually very good, but we have to be honest, we played well until the second goal we conceded. But after that we started to concede goals easily, and our focus was not at 100%."

"The fans give us tremendous motivation and support us every single day. When you walk around this city, you can feel what this club means to the fans and the whole city."

Igor Matanovic also said, "We are really proud to have such fans, and we really want to give back to them. I think we have given them a very good season, but to be honest, we would have liked to give them even more."

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