Olympiacos – Fiorentina: Mendilibar creates another European miracle and wins the conference with Olympiacos

lor did it again Jose Luis Mendilibar. After last year’s Europa League with Sevilla, Saldivar’s team repeated as European champions. At the AEK camp They beat Fiorentina (1-0) thanks to El Kaabi’s goal in the 116th minute of extra time. Olympiacos’ first European trophy in its history… in Mendy’s first year at the helm of the Piraeus team. A season in which the youth team also won the UEFA Youth League… against another Italian team: Milan. Fiorentina loses the conference final again.

A year later, Fiorentina returned to the Conference League. They lost to West Ham last year and wanted to bounce back. But Before them was Olympiacos of Mendilibar, who, at home in Athens, wanted to climb Olympus.

The Greeks started better. The first was Podence, who shone in the left sector of the Olympiacos attack. But quickly, as usual with Tuscans, Fiorentina took possession of the ball, slowed down the match and began to dominate.

But he failed too much. He forgave. Kouame shined on one side, Nico Gonzalez (Fiorentina star) failed on the other. Milenkovic did not score a goal due to offside, and young Konstantinos Tsolakis (21 years old) shone in the local goal.

The brightest of them went to veteran Giacomo Bonaventura, but he lost in two matches against Tsolakis. The reality is that after a great first 20 minutes, things started to go downhill. The match became granite, lead, rather thick and impractical.

Retsos, a bulwark after Belotti’s powerful strike nearly knocked him out, shone at the AEK Stadium and avoided any approach from Fiorentina. Yes, the Viola had a very good chance at the feet of Kouame, who finished half-missed and nevertheless forced Tsolakis to make a save. Olympiacos scared Fiore with two side centers. But the ball didn’t go in. And we were going for extra time.

Fines seemed inevitable. Terracciano put his hand down to stop Jovetic (who had earlier called for a handball and a penalty), and Tsolakis did the same to save the ball from Ikone. However, with five to go, in a somewhat strange move as Fiorentina fell asleep in defence, Kaabi finished off Horta’s beautiful cross and scored with a header. The score was 1:0 and Athens fell. But there were three long minutes of uncertainty due to a possible offside… until Soares said the goal was valid. And the red part of the OPAP Arena roared. They were champions.