Unai Emery insisted he should not be considered as the "King of the Europa League", even as he targets an unprecedented fifth title.
Emery leads his Aston Villa side into Wednesday's showdown against Freiburg in Istanbul on the verge of history.
He is already the most successful manager in the Europa League, having won it four times (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 with Sevilla, 2020-21 with Villarreal).
Should Villa beat Freiburg, Emery will join Giovanni Trapattoni, Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho for major European final wins (five).
However, Emery stayed modest about his success in the competition.
"I am not a king in this competition," he said.
"I am now here with Aston Villa in a new chapter. Everything I did is done and, of course, it's there in that moment.
"I need to win [in Turkey] with the players we have now, with Villa now. So now it's a new way, a new moment, and hopefully a new era.
"If you are not respecting the opponent, you are closer to losing. If you are not respecting Europe, like we did during the process, we are not here. This is the strong mentality we had before.
"We have a huge challenge, a huge challenge. Are we thinking about the next party on Friday? No, no."
IT’S EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL MATCHDAY pic.twitter.com/peHs6XQ3PW
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 20, 2026
Emery will be just the second manager to take charge of four different clubs (Sevilla, Arsenal, Villarreal and Villa) in major European finals, after Mourinho (Porto, Inter, Manchester United and Roma).
Mourinho won a trophy with all four, while the other two managers to win with three different clubs are Rafael Benitez (Valencia, Liverpool and Chelsea) and Udo Lattek (Bayern Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach and Barcelona).
Emery has overseen 115 Europa League games, collecting 71 wins, more than any other manager in the competition's history.
Since the start of 2023-24, no side has won more European matches than Emery's Villa (26).
Quoted by BBC Sport, Tyrone Mings said: "The manager is somewhat of a European genius, isn't he?
"He always reiterates the Premier League is the most important thing. We speak about growing the revenues and trying to increase the revenues to compete with the restrictions that are now in place.
"But he still delivers these amazing European runs, all while focusing on the Premier League. Finding that balance is something the squad and the manager should take a lot of credit for. It's been a special time."