Aston Villa vs Olympiacos

Villa Park is the venue as Aston Villa and Olympiacos go head-to-head in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final tie. 

Aston Villa’s first appearance in the major European semi-finals in 42 years required a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out win against Lille in the quarter-finals as they brace themselves for their first-ever meeting with Greek opposition. Villa’s morale took a beat last weekend as they squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Chelsea at home, extending their unbeaten home streak in all competitions to six matches (W4, D2). With all those games seeing the Lions net 2+ goals, scoring shouldn’t be a problem for Unai Emery’s side, especially considering they’ve drawn a blank just once in their last 31 European home outings! But four consecutive home matches without a clean sheet suggest Emery’s frontline will have to deliver another emphatic performance to claim a decisive first-leg advantage.

Meanwhile, Olympiacos squeaked past Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce in the quarter-finals on penalties, which forms part of their morale-boosting seven-game unbeaten streak across all competitions (W6, D1). No stranger to standout European results, manager Jose Luis Mendilibar led Sevilla to Europa League glory last season as he bids to turn Olympiacos’ miserable away fortunes against English sides around. Indeed, the Greek giants had lost their last 11 matches on English soil by a combined score of 33-3 before claiming three wins in eight, each against Arsenal. Olympiacos succumbed to a narrow 1-0 loss at West Ham in this season’s Europa Conference League group stages but have conceded under 1.5 goals in their last eight away games.