Olympiacos welcome Aston Villa to Karaiskakis Stadium in the second leg of their semi-final in 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League.
With a 4-2 lead from the first leg, Olympiacos simply need to win or draw in order to reach a first final in all UEFA competitions.
Unai Emery’s Villa meanwhile must simply win by at least a three-goal margin if they want to reach the final, although a 2-0 win would level the tie on aggregate and force extra-time plus potential penalties.
Team News
Stevan Jovetic is ruled out for Olympiacos due to injury, which he suffered in the first leg at Villa Park.
Andreas Ndoj and Georgios Masouras are available after they missed the first leg due to suspension
Nelson Abbey, Gelson Martins and Ruben Vezo are ineligible for the squad.
Villa could welcome goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez back after he missed their last two matches with a thigh injury.
Nicolo Zaniolo (knock), Morgan Rogers (hamstring) and Youri Tielemans (groin) are unlikely to be available for selection.
Jacob Ramsey (toe), Tyrone Mings, Boubacar Kamara (both knee) and Emiliano Buendia (ACL) remain ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Olympiacos host Villa at BayArena on Thursday 9 May at 8pm BST, live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Olympiacos won their only Europa Conference League meeting against Villa, which came by a 4-2 result in the first leg.
- Villa are playing away to Olympiacos for the first time in all UEFA competitions.
- Olympiacos have kept two clean sheets in their eight European matches at home this season (W6, L2).
- Villa have conceded in four of their five away games in this Europa Conference League campaign (W1, D2, L2).
Prediction
With a two-goal lead coming into their home leg, Olympiacos can continue their high-intensity attacking play which worked at Villa or go defensive to protect that lead, although if they go for the latter but concede early then they could find themselves vulnerable if forced to then go on the attack.
Villa meanwhile was poor in the first leg defensively despite their attacking quality but looked much tighter in their domestic loss at Brighton, where they were undone by a silly foul and wasteful end product but they need to start on the front foot and score early on.
If Unai Emery Villains can do that then they will certainly have a chance of at least forcing extra-time but Olympiacos won’t make it easy on their own turf, which makes me feel that Villa could fall just short here.
Prediction: Olympiacos 1-2 Aston Villa
Result: Olympiacos 2-0 Aston Villa (Olympiacos win 6-2 on aggregate)
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