The team buses have not arrived yet. The pitch in Bilbao is watered. An hour from kick-off, the stadium is filling with the particular hum that belongs to a European final, which is a sound somewhere between a pub and a cathedral.
Aston Villa’s evening has taken shape in the last ninety minutes. Emiliano Martínez passed a late fitness test on his calf and starts in goal, confirmation that arrived from Sky Sports’ Rob Dorsett twenty minutes before the teams were posted. That is the piece Unai Emery needed. Tyrone Mings, who has not featured since the semi-final second leg, is on the bench. Youri Tielemans partners Boubacar Kamara in midfield; Ollie Watkins leads the line ahead of Jhon Durán.
Borussia Dortmund arrive with fewer questions. Edin Terzić posted an unchanged side from the one that beat Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final, a vote of confidence that requires no translation. Niclas Füllkrug starts. Jadon Sancho, on loan from Manchester United, takes the right wing. Mats Hummels, thirty-five and in what he has called his final Champions League, sorry, Europa League campaign, marshals the back four.
Both line-ups are confirmed. The official team sheets were posted at 6.45pm BST, fifteen minutes after the deadline set by UEFA. Emery, in the tunnel, was already down the steps before the sheets arrived.
The noise is building now, the Villa end louder than the Dortmund, though only just. A European final does not need noise to feel important. It needs the small things: the way the players walk out, the cameras finding the captains, the first whistle that turns waiting into football.
