Olympiacos vs Aston Villa

Karaiskakis Stadium is the venue as Olympiacos and Aston Villa go head-to-head in the return leg of their enthralling Europa Conference League semi-final tie.

Olympiacos’ bid to become only the second Greek side to reach a major European final after Panathinaikos in 1971, Olympiacos pulled off a massive upset in England last weekend, cruising to a 4-2 win at Villa Park to put one foot in May’s Athens showpiece. After being handed a weekend off amidst a fierce four-way battle for Greek Super League supremacy, Jose Luis Mendilibar’s men return to the Karaiskakis Stadium, where they lost 4-1 to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last 16 before turning the tie on its head with a stunning 6-1 away win. The Greek heavyweights have since won four consecutive home outings across all competitions, netting multiple goals on each occasion while conceding more than one just once! But they’ve worryingly won just one of their last six home European meetings with English visitors (D2, L3).

Meanwhile, Aston Villa must overturn a sizeable deficit to book their first continental final date since the 1981/82 European Cup. However, losing 1-0 at Premier League strugglers Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend didn’t bod well for Unai Emery’s hopes of regrouping his troops following last week’s home fiasco against Olympiacos. The Lions must score at least twice to take this tie to extra time, yet that’s a feat they’ve failed to achieve in Conference League away action since a 4-1 thrashing of AZ Alkmaar in October. In fact, they’ve only scored twice across their last three continental travels inside regular 90 minutes (D2, L1). On another downside, they’ve suffered elimination in both previous European knockout ties when losing the first leg at home.