Olympiakos vs Aston Villa tips and predictions: Premier League side can force extra time
- George Dempsey
- 8 May 2024
Aston Villa, who trail 4-2, have a mountain to climb when they visit Olympiakos in the Europa Conference League semi-finals on Thursday (2000 BST).
The odds will be firmly stacked against Aston Villa when they visit the hostile and fiery confines of the Stadio Georgios Karaiskaki.
The Premier League side fought back from 2-0 down but Ayoub El Kaabi completed his hat-trick from the spot before Santiago Hezze restored Olympiakos’ two-goal lead.
Unai Emery’s side have given themselves a mountain to climb, especially considering they’ve done their best work at home in Europe.
The Villans have won six of their seven home Europa Conference League fixtures, yet they’ve won just two on their travels, losing to Lille and Legia Warsaw.
The Greeks may have failed to make it out of their Europa League group, but they gave West Ham a run for their money, winning 2-1 at home and losing 1-0 in London.
Despite the host’s quality, there is evidence Villa can turn this tie around. Visitors Maccabi Tel Aviv, Panathinaikos and PAOK have beaten them by two or more goals in the last 12 months.
Those are sides you’d respectfully acknowledge don’t have the level of quality or firepower as the Premier League’s fourth-place side.
The difficulty will be balancing committing players to the attack to score goals with avoiding a catastrophe at the other end.
They’ve conceded in eight of 11 since the group stage started and all but one on their travels, so that could prove a tall order, making both teams to score likely.
However, we’ve seen Jekyll and Hyde performances from the Greek side, least not their 4-1 defeat at home to Macabbi followed by a 6-1 away win in the previous round.
We also have to consider that Villa showed considerable character against Lille in the previous round, so we think they’ll be up for the fight and could still qualify.
Team news
Olympiakos’ red-hot hitman El Kaabi has scored 31 goals in all competitions this season and will lead the line.
The ex-Premier League quartet of Daniel Podence, Vicente Iborra, Omar Richards and Stefan Jovetic form part of the Greek's squad.
Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings, Emi Buendia and Jacob Ramsey are unavailable to the visitors.
Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Nicolo Zaniolo and Emi Martinez are also questionable, but Villa are hopeful the Argentinian stopper will be passed fit.
Key stats
- Olympiakos have scored at least one goal in 28 of 30 matches at home
- Olympiakos have lost five of their last 14 home times by two or more goals
- Ollie Watkins is Villa’s top scorer with 27 goals across all competitions
- Eight of those goals have been scored in the Europa Conference League
- Both teams have scored in eight of Villa’s last 11 European fixtures
