Aston Villa v Olympiakos: Europa Conference League semi-final, first leg – live | Europa Conference League
Key events
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-2 Olympiakos (Watkins 45+1)
The game begins!
45 minutes: There is contact between the pair, but Bayley seems to be looking for the tangle.
44 minutes: Bailey twists and turns in the box and goes down… but the referee is having none of it. No penalty. Ortega is the man who tangled with the Villa winger.
43 minutes: Olympiakos takes a corner short before getting into the middle, almost falling perfectly for El Kaabi to tap in… but he plays it safe and picks the pass. The goal scorer is the endpoint of the attack.
42 minutes: Kesh goes over the back of Podenze with a diving header – Villa loses his cool just a little bit.
40 minutes: Podenze and Lewis argue and the referee steps in to calm things down.
39 minutes: Podentse leads the Olympiakos counter-attack and Fortunis fires a shot from the right… which goes over Olsen and the crossbar. Another promising wave ahead from tourists.
38 minutes: Villa moves the ball well through the center, all the way to Bailly… but he can’t get his feet together and hit from the edge of the box.
37 min: Luiz plays short to McGinn, who shoots into the box with his left… and wins a corner. The ball is cleared by the near post.
36 minutes: Cash slides a ball down the line for Bailey to chase down and he is fouled on the edge of the box, Carmo slides in and does the damage.
34 minutes: McGinn’s corner from the right is struck which sums up Villa’s lack of finesse at the moment.
33 minutes: Luiz, ready with the hairdryer, picks it up on the halfway line and Villa attack down the right as Cash bursts into the box and Bailey collects the scraps, winning a corner.
31 minutes: Unai Emery went absolutely ballistic against Douglas Luiz.
GOAL! Aston Villa 0-2 Olympiakos (El Kaabi 29)
Great help. Villa lose it in midfield, Olympiakos take it quickly to Podenze, who is drifting down the middle on the left, and he pokes the ball over the backline for El Kaabi to run into the box on the right. He heads the rebound and slides it past the advancing Olsen into the net. What an incredible opening 30 for the Greek side.
28 minutes: Olympiakos happy to just send the ball high to their centre-forward El Kaabi and see what carnage it causes.
27 minutes: Long Olympiakos the ball from the back tries to find El Kaabi but it’s headed wide. Iborra wins the ball in the middle as the visitors circulate the ball before another long shot finds Olsen.
25 minutes: Diaby tries to play Watkins into the box but there are two Olympiakos the shirts hang tight on the Villa striker and the ball runs out for a goal.
23 minutes: Villa fans carry on. Olympiakos are feeding off the atmosphere at the moment though as Fortunis drives forward for the visitors.
21 minutes: Olsen almost cleared a corner that flew deep. Fortunis tries to bring it back into the danger zone, but his long diagonal ball goes wide.
20 minutes: Podenze causes problems, sliding into Ortega to cross from the left. It’s blocked for a corner.
GOAL! Aston Villa 0-1 Olympiakos (El Kaabi 16)
Another disallowed goal! This time it is Olympiakos who suffer, with Cicinho’s clean strike finding El Kaabi, who slips confidently past Olsen with his left foot in the box and turns in celebration… before being cut short by the rising flag. Oh, wait a minute. There’s a VAR check and it’s a given! The line is drawn and he is called for play and Cash plays him at right back. Villa is stunned.
15 minutes: Watkins was clutching his right hand, in quite a bit of pain. It’s just after Douglas Lewis’s shot from distance takes an awkward bounce – but the keeper deals with it.
14 minutes: Villa almost got too cute as Bailly broke in from the right and passed before the ball made its way to Dine as Olympiakos step back and drive.
9 minutes: Canceled goal! Luiz takes the corner and brings it back to curl a ball towards the far post where Konsa gets on the end of it, flicking it across goal before Bailey heads in from close range… but the celebrations are quickly cut short. There was clearly a foul on the build-up, Lenglet vs. Iborra.
8 minutes: Villa settled in, circling midfield before Dine tried to slide a cross in from the left. The ball is taken out for a corner…
6 minutes: Cash advances upfield before the ball reaches Rodgers who delivers a good shot from the edge of the box… Tsolakis comes down the left and clears for a corner. Great effort. Villa cannot capitalize from a corner.
4 minutes: Bright opening for Olympiakos, who seem lively and eager to spoil the party. Podence operated on the left and enjoyed the early moments.
2 minutes: The Villa supporters break into song before Podenze curls a great ball into the box with the outside of his right foot and Iborra heads it at the far post and Olsen turns it over the bar. The flag is going up…but I think he might still be on.
1 minute: Olympiakos hit him from behind before Podence headed over an ambitious ball into the Villa box.
Peep!
The cottages are in their usual burgundy and blue; Olympiakos rock weird gray orange number. The guests started.
“Good luck to Villa tonight,” writes Ian Sargent, friendly West Ham supporter. “Keep the ribbons on the trophy. Best single night of my life in Prague last year.’
Only 10 minutes away now. Feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts, queries, movie reviews, life advice, whatever you like.
I’ve run through the numbers and I believe Villa have five changes to the starting 11 from their quarter-final second leg against Lille, including Robin Olsen, who replaced the suspended Martinez in goal. Olympiakos make two changes from their last-eight clash with Fenerbahce, with former Manchester City player Stefan Jovetic starting on the bench. Another Olympiakos name familiar to Our League is Daniel Podens, hired by Wolves, who starts.
Just in case you don’t want my company (your loss, but I won’t accept anything – *he hiccups* – violation).
The teams
Here’s what they look like…
Aston Villa: Olsen, Cash, Konsa, Lenglet, Dine, McGinn, Douglas Lewis, Bailly, Diaby, Rodgers, Watkins
Subs: Diego Carlos, Torres, Gauci, Zaniolo, Duran, Kessler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Wright, Munro, Keliman, Young
Olympiakos: Tsolakis, Rodiney, Retsos, Carmo, Ortega, Jese, Iborra, Chiquinho, Podence, El Kaabi, Fortunis
Subs: Paschalakis, Horta, El-Arabi, Alexandropoulos, Quinney, Carvalho, Jovetic, Richards, Papadoudis, Prekatewith
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy)
Here’s Ben Fisher on the wonderful time Villa is having.
Preamble
Good evening and welcome to coverage of Olympiakos’ trip to Villa Park for the first leg of this Europa League semi-final tie. Unai Emery’s priority is the Premier League, but as a serial Europa League winner he knows how good continental success tastes; it really is a huge night in Aston Villa’s modern history, a chance to repeat the scenes West Ham pulled off last year. However, they will have to go through this without an important figure, with Emmy Martinez, their chief mischief-maker, missing by suspension. Nervous, even just a little bit? They have to be.
The Greek side had their own penalty shootout joy in the quarter-finals, beating Fenerbahce 3-2 on penalties after Konstantinos Tsolakis, just 21, made three saves. Their season began in the Europa League and included a win over West Ham, but they crashed out in the group stage before beating Ferencvaros, Maccabi Tel Aviv and a relatively star-studded Turkish outfit to reach this point. Villa have won all their home games in this European run; a tough night ahead for their opponents. Kick-off is at 20:00 BST.
