Olympiacos break new ground for Greece

The tenth edition of the UEFA Youth League ended with an eighth different name on the trophy. In fact, by beating AC Milan 3-0 in the final, Olympiacos became the first Greek club to win any UEFA competition, and only their nation's second European victors overall after UEFA EURO 2004.

No Greek side had even reached the Youth League quarter-finals before 2023/24, but Olympiacos progressed through the season without losing over 90 minutes, becoming the third winners from the domestic champions path. As with predecessors Salzburg in 2016/17 and AZ Alkmaar in 2022/23, this was also the club's first European honour.

The major drama in the group stage came on Matchday 6, when Feyenoord trailed Celtic 2-1 in the 90th minute but were to win 3-2, taking them above Atlético de Madrid into first place and an automatic round of 16 slot. Atlético still kept up their record of always making at least the play-offs, while Real Madrid maintained their feat of getting to the round of 16 in all ten editions.

Holders AZ were again in the domestic champions path and began with a competition-record 12-0 defeat of Klaipėda. AZ's title defence was to end in the round of 16 as they conceded an added-time equaliser against Porto and then lost on penalties.

Penalty shoot-outs were also a theme of Nantes' run to the semi-finals. In all, they won four shoot-outs along the way, a record. Nantes also set competition-record crowds for both the quarter-finals (19,301 vs Copenhagen) and domestic champions path (12,450 vs HJK Helsinki) as well as attracting 13,377 for their play-off defeat of Sevilla, part of an aggregate tally of 46,928, a new Youth League best.

Meanwhile, Union Berlin's crowd of 20,744 against Real Madrid was a group stage record and the second best overall in the competition's history.

In total, there had been 14 penalty shoot-outs on the road to the finals, which returned to Nyon after a year in Geneva. And both semis also ended up going to penalties, as Olympiacos ended Nantes' run 3-1 on spot kicks after a 0-0 draw and Milan beat Porto 4-3 following a 2-2 draw in which the Italian side had levelled in added time.

That took Milan a round further than in 2022/23, when they lost to Hajduk Split in the semis, and made them the first Italian finalists. However, it was Olympiacos who were left celebrating in the end.

The final was level at 45 minutes, the first goalless half in any of the ten deciders to date. But Christos Mouzakitis's penalty on the hour, followed swiftly by Antonios Papakanellos's solo effort and Theofanis Bakoulas's outrageous bicycle kick, gave Olympiacos victory.

Mouzakitis told UEFA.com: "It feels amazing to hold this trophy, a dream really. To be honest, it wasn't even a dream; I never thought such a thing would happen."