Olympiacos 2-0 Aston Villa (agg: 6-2): El Kaabi steers Thrylos to Athens final

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Olympiacos will take on Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa Conference League final in Athens after Ayoub El Kaabi struck twice to end Aston Villa's hopes of a semi-final second-leg comeback.

Highlights: Olympiacos 2-0 Aston Villa

Ayoub El Kaabi struck for the fourth and fifth times in Olympiacos's semi-final tie against Aston Villa as the Greek side up a meeting with Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa Conference League showcase in Athens.

Key moments

10': El Kaabi converts Quini cross at the far post
37': Martínez saves well from Fortounis as the hosts break
45+4': Tzolakis fends away Bailey's deflected shot
60': Substitute Duran draws a save from Tzolakis
81': El Kaabi breaks offside trap to smash in Olympiacos's second
90+3': Tzolakis makes a fine save to deny Watkins a late consolation

Match in brief: El Kaabi delights Piraeus crowd

El Kaabi (No9) runs to the Olympiacos fans after breaking the deadlockUEFA via Getty Images

El Kaabi – scorer of a first-leg hat-trick last week – contributed another two goals as Thrylos sealed their place in the final. José Luis Mendilibar's side took just ten minutes to extend their lead in the tie, as a swift counter culminated in Quini crossing for the unmarked Moroccan to tuck away at the far post.

Villa looked to respond with Leon Bailey stinging Kostas Tzolakis' palms at the end of the first half, but 30-year-old El Kaabi put the tie beyond the Premier League side nine minutes from time when he latched onto Tzolakis' long kick and fired past Emiliano Martínez. The visitors rarely threatened, though Ollie Watkins was denied a late consolation goal by a fine Tzolakis save.

As it happened: Olympiacos 2-0 Aston Villa

Vassiliki Papantonopoulou, match reporter

Olympiacos have reached their first ever senior UEFA club competition final with Ayoub El Kaabi scoring five of their six goals over 180 minutes. José Luis Mendilibar's side imposed their tempo on the tie, displaying impressive efficiency in front of goal while pressing well and disrupting Villa's game. It is Thrylos's biggest achievement in Europe – until the next one. On 29 May, they meet Fiorentina in the final: can they become the first Greek side to win a major UEFA club trophy?

Reaction

Mendilibar: 'I don't know how I feel'

José Luis Mendilibar, Olympiacos coach: "When I came to Olympiacos, I did not expect we would go so far in Europe. I was collecting info about the team. However, I slowly started believing that we could do well in the league and in Europe. We worked well, we played well and we deserve to be in the final. I want to thank the club for giving me the opportunity to be here."

Ayoub El Kaabi, Olympiacos striker, speaking to Cosmote TV: "I am very happy. It is a big moment, we overcame many difficulties to reach this stage. We were very focused in both legs. We knew that Aston Villa are a great team, but we trusted our abilities. We will keep going and, hopefully, we will play well in the final."

Kostas Tzolakis, Olympiacos goalkeeper, speaking to Cosmote TV: "Nobody among us expected this feat after a complicated first half of the season. However, day by day, with each training session, we started believing more and more and now we have qualified for a European final for the first time in the club’s history.We go into this final as the outsiders, as Fiorentina have the experience of last season’s final."

El Kaabi scores Olympiacos's second goalUEFA via Getty Images

Unai Emery, Aston Villa head coach, speaking to Cosmote TV: "Olympiacos deserved to win tonight as well and to qualify. They were the better team in both legs. We lost our opportunity with our performance in the first leg. We then tried to focus on how to negotiate the match in Piraeus. In the first half, we carved out chances and reduced Olympiacos’ activity, but they were able to score."

John McGinn, Aston Villa captain, speaking to TNT Sports: "We went into this competition as favourites and we handled that throughout the competition. I think it has been a big learning curve for us. It’s not been a smooth journey: we got to the semi-final and were down to the bare bones of the squad a bit."

The teams line up ahead of kick-off in PiraeusUEFA via Getty Images

Key stats

After making it through their first-ever UEFA competition semi-final, Olympiacos will be the only the second Greek club to play in a major UEFA club competition final; Panathinaikos were the first, reaching the European Cup final in 1971.
With ten goals, Ayoub El Kaabi is now the stand-alone top scorer in this season's Europa Conference League; the first player to score a Europa Conference League semi-final hat-trick, he has scored 15 times in 18 UEFA club competition games this season, including qualifying.
Olympiacos have won 11 games and scored 37 goals in UEFA club competition this season, both club records. Their previous highest goals tally was 24 (2018/19 and 2019/20).
Thrylos have already won one UEFA final this season; their youth team beat Milan 3-0 in the UEFA Youth League final in Nyon.
Villa were playing in only their second UEFA club competition semi-final; their first came in the 1981/82 European Cup when they defeated Anderlecht 1-0 on aggregate (1-0 h, 0-0 a) on their way to winning the competition.
Villa have won only two of their last 11 away European matches (D3 L6); it was only the second time in their last 16 UEFA games that they failed to score.

Line-ups

Olympiacos: Tzolakis; Rodinei, Retsos, David Carmo, Quini (Apostolopoulos, 77); Hezze, Iborra (André Horta, 73), Chiquinho; Podence (Masouras, 63), El Kaabi, Fortounis

Aston Villa: Martínez; Cash (Hayden, 86), Pau Torres, Konsa, Diego Carlos (Iroegbunam, 66), Digne (Munroe, 86); Diaby (Duran, 56), McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Bailey (Kellyman, 86); Watkins

Destination: Athens

UEFA via Getty Images

Olympiacos are the nominal home team as they take on Fiorentina in the final in Athens on 29 May.