At A Glance
The semi-final stage of the Europa Conference League pits Aston Villa against Olympiacos, with the first leg taking place at Villa Park on Thursday.
Villa have fought hard for their place in the final four, overcoming LOSC Lille in the quarter-finals in a penalty shootout after levelling the aggregate scores in the final minutes of normal time.
Unai Emery’s team topped Group E after beating Hibernian in the play-off round and went on to see off Ajax in the Round of 16.
Olympiacos’ European journey saw them drop out of the Europa League after finishing third in a group containing West Ham United.
The Greek side beat Ferencváros and Maccabi Tel Aviv before overcoming Fenerbahçe in an epic quarter-final that was decided by a penalty shootout.
Head coach José Luis Mendilibar, who won the Europa League with Sevilla last season, joined in February and has won 12 of his 17 games in charge.
Form Guide
Olympiacos have compiled a five-game unbeaten run in the Greek Super League Play-Offs.
After finishing third in the table after 26 matches, the league’s top six teams began the play-off round to fight it out for the title.
Olympiacos lost their first two matches of the new phase but have since won four and drawn one, including a 4-1 success at home to PAS Lamia last time out.
The team’s away form has been consistently strong throughout the campaign and they have lost only six of 25 road trips in all competitions.
Last Time Out In Europe
Just like Aston Villa, Olympiacos progressed to the last four of the competition via a penalty shootout in their quarter-final against Fenerbahçe.
The Greek side had been cruising at 3-0 up in the first leg before conceding twice to leave the tie finely poised heading into the return fixture in Turkey.
Fenerbahçe levelled the aggregate score to send the match to extra-time before spot kicks were needed to separate the teams.
Olympiacos goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis was their hero in the shootout, saving three penalties to win a place in the semi-finals.
The Bosses
“He’s (José Luis Mendilibar) a very successful coach in Spain. He started, more or less, as a coach like me. We were always playing in the championship in Spain and in La Liga. Always I respect him a lot because he’s very competitive, he’s a very passionate coach like me and he’s being successful. He deserves to have this opportunity in Europe like he had last year in Sevilla when he won the Europa League. I’m going to respect him a lot because I know the competitive way he is usually building with his teams.”
Unai Emery
“They are a team playing in the world’s best league and are in 4th position; that alone shows that they are a tough opponent. We have great respect for them, and we know that it will be a difficult game, but we have respect for all of our opponents, including Lamia. We have a chance to win. It’s an important match and we have the opportunity to participate in a European final to be held in Athens. We will work hard to achieve this goal. When you play against a team like Aston Villa, any mistake can cost you a lot, so we need to limit our mistakes. Aston Villa is a team that can take the score to 2–0 without much possession, as they did in the previous match, but they can also concede goals for the same reason.”
José Luis Mendilibar
