Mendilibar wins first fight with Emery
José Luis Mendilibar’s Olympiacos, with a hat-trick from Ayoub El Kaabi, surprised and destroyed Aston Villa in the first leg of the Conference League semi-final and forced the English side back to Athens to reach the final (2-4). ).
The Greeks, on their European semi-final debut, showed exceptional efficiency in front of goal, as well as a bit of luck in all the gray decisions of the evening.
As soon as the match began, Italian Marco Guida, of whom there are few good memories at Birmingham, had Leon Bailey’s goal canceled out by Clément Lenglet’s earlier challenge on Vicente Iborra. A controversial decision that the Villa players did not explain.
They also didn’t understand, minutes after VAR overturned the referee’s decision to invalidate El Kaabi’s 0-1 scoreline. The Moroccan forward was left one on one with the goalkeeper after a deep pass from Chiquinho, he confidently scored over Olsen, but the linesman disallowed the goal due to offside. VAR reviewed this and ruled that Matt Cash had committed an illegal position.
Mendilibar’s men took the lead and doubled their lead within half an hour, once again taking advantage of the space left by Konsa and Lenglet.
Chiquinho teamed up with Daniel Podence, an old Premier League acquaintance, and he sent a superb ball over the center backs for El Kaabi to control with his header and slide the ball under Olsen.
It was a dream first half for Olympiacos, who were surprisingly denied a clear penalty by Ortega on Bailey before the break.
With the crowd and players still complaining, in the next game Cash walked up to the touchline, played inside behind Diaby and penetrated into the middle of the penalty area so Watkins crossed the ball in front of Tsolakis and handed him an oxygen tank. Aston Villa.
The comeback began, or so the locals thought, when Diaby, after Bailey’s pass to the baseline, focused his eyes on the ball and, without looking up, found, without an angle, a tiny gap between Olsen and the post to tie it in. a game.
Villa had already stabilized the disaster, but it derailed in their hands without them even noticing it.
Three minutes after the draw, after a corner, Douglas Luiz parried Retsos’ header with his hand. Fine.
From eleven meters out, El Kaabi completed his hat-trick and sank Luiz, who was in for the bitterest part of the night.
And Olympiacos were still pleased to celebrate, because in the 67th minute Santiago Hezze tried his luck from outside the penalty area when the ball hit Konsa’s back and changed the trajectory of Olsen, who only managed to stretch out and touch the ball, but without being in able to prevent him from reaching his target.
Once again Villa were two goals behind and again had the opportunity to change their fortunes. This time from the penalty spot. Carmo put John Duran ahead and Douglas Louis, the one who took the penalty to make it 2-3, took responsibility for it.
After an endless race for shots and two breaks waiting for a shot, the Brazilian shot to the right, the ball hit the post and flew wide of the goal.
Villa missed the opportunity to travel to Athens with a better result and will now need to win by two goals to even get extra time. If they fail, Mendilibar and his Olympiacos will play in their first ever European final.