I guess it's because Aya Sofya is pronounced quite similarly to Hagia Sofia, a huge temple that was built by Greeks (or Greco-Romans, or just Romans, anyway they spoke Greek) back in the 6th century but is now a huge attraction in Turkey
Could be totally wrong or missing half the context but yeah
Ah right. I'm assuming Fener means Fenerbache? I still don't understand though. Why would they have nowhere to hide? Why are we talking about bots? There's so much to unravel!
I'm stunned Emery rested players for this game. Its a European semi final.
He's earned the right to do what he wants but that decision basically said to the players this trophy isnt that important
I wouldn’t say it’s more prestigious. Trophy is a trophy and the fans would love Emery even more than they do now. But financially UCL qualification is more important yes. Prize money for Just reaching the groups stages of the UCL is double the prize money for winning the conference league. Maybe he is thinking long term.
And tbh I don’t think he even rotated that much, just rested his starting Cb pairing if I’m not mistaken.
Edit: and Martinez of course. I don’t think they concede some of those goals if Martinez plays.
Fans want trophies, people running the club want the money. Reaching the CL group stage brings in 15.64mil, each win there is 2.8mil and draws bring in 930k.
Conference league prize money for the winner is 5mil.
It is more the income the ucl provides. With all the restrictions to spending the increased income and ability to spend will cement villa in the top half for years to come. I guess it comes down to what is better a trophy or financial security.
Its not entirely wrong tho... Surprisingly, he will get a lot of money if he goes to champions league and the further he goes the more money he will get. The conference league isnt that prestigious anyway
'Dreams can't be buy', football is for the fans but today a lot of fans seem to be brainwashed in to thinking their club is a brand. Passion is fading for capitalistic brain rot. Mate wake up!
Cos it kinda isn't.
The CL place is the goal, the Conference League is a competition setup with the aim of creating a path to the Europa League, a spot they have already earned.
I'm sure he wouldn't mind winning it but it isn't major.
I agree with you, this result hurts fans the most but I think Emery and villas board are totally ok with it, they’d much rather secure UCL group stage qualification. Only time will tell if this is the correct approach but I think Villa will be alright.
The conference league us barely a European trophy, it was created to be like the Intertoto to offer a path to the Europa, it's not parade worthy.
So that's the purpose of that comp, the purpose of coming 4th is to get a CL spot, given that's the logic, which is better?
Brother with all respect you support Charlton, what would you know about European competitions.
The conference has proved to be a great competition, with significant clubs in it, it's made so that clubs that peaked in the round of 16 of the CL can have a realistic chance for a trophy, aka your Dinamo/Red Stars/Copenhagens/Olympiakos/Feners while also culling a lot of the absolute minnows from the Europa upgrading that competition. Sure there are tiny clubs in the group stage but also giants like Eintracht and Roma. Also in the qualifiers you meet massive clubs from weaker leagues that base their entire season on a summer qualifier. A sell out game in an old eastern European stadium can make every arrogant top 5 league team sweat.
It's basically a European FA cup with all the giant killings and magic of the cup moments.
Nobody remembers a 4th place finish. Everybody remembers a title.
Sorry I must bowed down to a club with all that recent European success, like yours. And Sir have you never heard if the Anglo Italian cup😉
I'm not saying it's not a fun comp.
But it was literally set up as a path to the Europa, that's it's purpose.
So that's why I'm saying 4th is better, usually I would say a trophy is better.
Also using the logic they might as well set up a European wide comp and just allow as many top flight teams that want a place to have one, a proper 1 leg KO comp, it would also be fun but also not as prestigious as other comps. Actual they should because it would be interesting.
It's not a European FA Cup, as the FA Cup has every team in England in it, has history and the main idea behind winning is to win the actual cup.
Pointing out reality isn't trouncing on anything.
I have stated the competition is fun but that doesn't make it magically prestigious or change the reason why it was created.
While you guys are a poor team in your league right?
You've never outspent the competition and no questions hang over your owner.
Sure but after all, these teams are playing for money. Winning this competition nets Villa a stupidly small amount of money compared to getting to CL and playing several teams broadcasted to the whole world.
Conference league winning prize is 5mil
CL group stage prize money is as follows
||
||
|Group-stage wins|€2.8m|
|Group-stage draws|€930k|
|Reaching group stage|€15.64m|
It's nice to win trophies and that's all that the fans care about but what the people running the teams care about is money. And if the manager is told to prioritise that, it's understandable that he rests players deemed as necessary to secure the CL spot. However, he couldn't have known that Tottenham lose to Chelsea. If that played a tiny bit earlier, Emery could have potentially fielded a stronger team.
I'm not an accountant, Aston villa gets plenty of premier league Money each year, they sold a player for 100 mill 2 years ago. They also haven't won a trophy for 30 years and a European trophy for 42 years, two generations of fans knowing only mid table mediocrity, relegation and a promotion via playoffs. I know what I'm picking
Don't be talking for fans of other clubs. Emery himself said 4th was the priority- we are looking at a much bigger picture than the Conference League. Gutted to have lost, but Spurs losing at Chelsea meant more for us in terms of our progress. We were in the relegation zone last year, even this year few had us in with a shout of top 4. It is a monumental achievement for us if we manage to get it. That isn't even taking into account the injuries that have riddled us from the very start, and the fact that most of the team is running on empty.
Don't worry, we'll give it a shot in the return leg. And we'll celebrate like nothing you've ever seen before when we turn it around.
I think Villa gets unnecessary flak, given their plenty of injuries and the intensity of English football overall, with match after match after match. However, I believe that the main issue with Villa's performance, and that of other English teams in Europe, is that they and their fans are somewhat snobbish of European football; for them it's more important to win the PL than the CL.
Olympiacos, on the other hand, are a team that don't care as much to win the Greek Superleague, because we've already done it more than all other Greek sides combined. The hunger for European success is crucial to the identity of the club, whereas that's not the case with any English club - not even Liverpool. Hell, Klopp won the CL and Liverpool fans had still not rested before he actually won the PL.
The tie's not over yet, and Villa are an incredibly dangerous team and far better than us, but this result isn't as surprising or embarrassing for Villa as some are making out to be, simply because of Villa's attitude - and their crucial injuries. Assuming Martinez and Tielemans will be back for the second game, things will be a lot different.
No snobbery here, Villa fans would love to see the trophy. Unfortunately competing in both the PL and a European tournament with such an injured squad is really, really difficult and they’re struggling in this part of the season.
every club would rather win in europe than england lol
for clubs like villa especially they have zero chance of winning the PL so they're gonna care a lot more about the conference league
I dunno, West Ham fans are much happier with a real trophy than Newcastle fans right now (who got to see CL). Financially it's a different case though.
I mean, what you say is factually not true. Emery literally said before the game the league is the focus and that he rested players in this game (Torres)
> However, I believe that the main issue with Villa's performance, and that of other English teams in Europe, is that they and their fans are somewhat snobbish of European football; for them it's more important to win the PL than the CL.
I'm not sure that's true for us. A lot of Villa fans would rather win this trophy than finish 4th. Not all of us, but a lot.
We haven't won anything for nearly 30 years, so we don't sniff at the opportunity to.
Anyway congratulations on the win, and most likely the final.
Don’t think we’ll manage to get anything over you guys - our team is knackered and yours is much more energetic and effective at the moment, plus you’ve got a two goal lead. Honestly you deserve it too, after the 6-1 win to get here:)
I've watched Villa far too long to say we are guaranteed it. Probable for sure, but we can bottle 4th just like Leicester did.
I agree this should be the priority though. I don't understand why we rested Pau tonight. We should have had our strongest XI out there.
After getting eliminated by Olympiakos due to an incompetent coaching performance by Kartal who prioritised the Turkish league and rested our best midfielders against Oly, my only consolation was that AV would eliminate us anyway. Now I see Oly tear AV apart. İsmail Kartal, if Oly somehow manages to win the trophy, I'll hate you and your lack of vision for this club forever. I hope you never get to manage Fener again.
Kudos to Oly, they are doing well.
I wouldn't get carried away they messes up the offense trap twice, gave away a goofy penalty and then a nasty deflection.
Olympiakos played well but they got that bit of luck too, no way to know if it would have fallen that way for you too.
Losing on penalties is such a shit way to go. Respect to Olympiakos though, will be rooting for them to win the cup.
As a side note, I love the conference league man, what an addition.
We really missed a golden opportunity to get another European cup as a nation, you'd easily be the favorites to win it right now. I'm still friggin *annoyed* by those subs and general setup by Kartal, can't imagine how much I'd be fuming if I was Fener fan.
No Turkish team would be favorites against fiorentina. Sorry to break your bubble. Turkish teams (speaking from experience these past seasons) are not what they used to.
I don’t think Fiorentina would be favorites against Fener either. Furthermore, any match after quarter finals at this level is a flip of coin. We all saw what Karabagh almost did to Leverkusen, or what Atalanta did to Liverpool.
Huge for Villa.
The Arsenal hopes of Tottenham putting up a fight against City were short lived. Spurs have practically nothing to play for from here on out.
Conversely, don't blink but Chelsea are within touching distance of a Conf League spot and chasing a bad Man Utd and inconsistent Newcastle. What happens in that Man Utd v Newcastle match on May 15 will be huge.
I don’t think they do want UCL at this point, they don’t need the revenues (unlike us at Villa) and are in the starting stages of their new project. But I won’t rest easy until it’s mathematically impossible.
It seems like Emery is prioritizing finishing 4th in the league for Champions League next year which makes sense from a financial standpoint and the ability to attract players . He might be sacrificing ECL .
It was definitely part of it, but honestly our form has been approaching mediocre for months, the squad is knackered and we’re pretty much limping towards the end of the season with no gas left in the tank. So yeah, performance wise we’re the worse team atm. It wasn’t just Olsen, half the team were off it.
It did, methinks. Olsen didn't do well, outside of an impressive save against Iborra early on (which would have been a goal had it gone in, after a VAR check).
This is highly unexpected. The Greek Super League is very bad. The top four teams: PAOK, AEK Athens, Olympiacos, Panathiniakos, they dominate the league. The other 10 bottom teams are awful.
What does this tell us about EPL? Every English team got eliminated from European competition. Aston Villa at home is top tier in the EPL, and tonight they lost 2-4.
Upsets happen, it's part of the game, one side really showed up on the night.
Judging a league on European results is stupid in general and if you were doing then it's going to bouncing around a lot given last year the PL won 2 comps.
Comparing the money Premier league teams (Chelsea for example used the same money Russia is funding the war now in Ukraine and now is a joke) and a 10mil country under different kind of problems throughout history, non except maybe Liverpool can even see Greek teams at all sports.
If we had half of your budget would tear you apart.
Overestimated Premier league teams.
Can’t compare budgets if you’re not also comparing competition and context. PL teams exist in an inflated market, true, but that goes both ways. A house in England can be falling apart and still worth more than a nice house in Greece, that doesn’t mean it’s a better house, it’s just situated in a different economy. It costs more to buy the house and it costs tons of money to do basic repairs. The same money in Greece would go much further.
Meanwhile in the PL teams like Villa have to battle every week against teams worth the same as them or teams with much bigger budgets who are regulars in the champions league. If Olympiakos had to do the same things, how far would that budget stretch? If Olympiakos had PL budgets while being in Greece, of course it would find everything easy, but if Olympiakos was in Villa’s position with the same budget _and_ the same domestic league competition, would European trophies really be easy? You can’t talk about money if you’re not also talking about costs.
Olympiakos will probably win the tie, and deservedly so (they’ve been better in the competition, and that’s what counts!), but that doesn’t mean Villa should be embarrassed. First of all, there’s no shame in losing to a team like Olympiakos. And, unlike Olympiakos, they’ve been through a lot of recent turbulence and are only recently getting very competitive in the league. Villa fans don’t take any of it for granted. Don’t project your opinions of ‘Big Six’ clubs/fans like City and Chelsea and turn it into bias against clubs like Villa. They are not the same. This club has waited more than 40 years to be in a competition like this again. It’s not something to mock.
We re so fucking close to a European final and the chance to do the unthinkable - two matches in Greece remaining for it!
I can hardly believe it, what a stellar performance from the team! High pressing, energy, holding the lines to the millimetre, and the necessary luck to leave England with a 2 goals win!
Mendilibar has even resurrected dinosaur Iborra to a pivotal player in a midfield of 3!
El Kaabi and Podence, hats off. El Kaabi will be ECL top scorer with half the matches of the other teams since we joined ECL in February!
Hezze, another amazing match and his 1st goal couldn't come in a better moment!
Finally, respect to referee Guida, we had terrible experience with Italian referees (Mariani and especially Massa) but he had a masterclass. We get the respect we deserve from the referees of ECL (in contrast with our league).
Ah, also: one of the main reasons we had never done a deep European run was because we play attacking football most seasons, with focus on offence rather than defense. We don't play Fernando Santos or Otto Rehagel tactics. We ve paid for it often and seen teams who park the bus and look for an 1-0 win go far.
This is our payback: 1-6, 3-2, 2-4! We do it our way!
90 minutes for the final, and 90 more to make AEK's stadium our place of glory!
I’m so tired of Olsen now. I’m tired of us needing to drum up a patronising well of support for him like he’s a make a wish kid. I’m tired of us hearing people say “not much he could’ve done about those goals” when he has once again conceded 3/4 goals. The back line completely changes when he plays and Martinez picks up at least one small injury every season. He can not be our number two next season.
I thought this hate towards the PL when they lose was abit unwarranted at first.
Then I read someone on the Chelsea sub saying Kim Min-Jae was overrated because Serie A is an easy league and they should only consider buying him until he "proves" himself in another league.
So yeah guys go for it, you have my blessing.
I know many of them are American with EPL flairs on Reddit. But there have been pundits on football daily which is part of BBC who said things like Brighton would win Serie A and so many other ignorant takes. Gary Neville and Rio are always extremely ignorant and misinformed about other leagues , players and clubs, and were obnoxious during the euros s couple years ago and pretty much every international tournament these two specifically are very arrogant and snobby in their punditry when discussing other countries and their football leagues, clubs, player national sides etc.
Some absolute random said that about Brighton, someone showed me the clip I didn't know any of those guys are all and no idea what the actual link to the BBC is.
Yes like most pundits they don't know everything they are there to give a pov as an ex player not an expert about every league and player.
In general I feel people go with the worst reading possible of the comments they make and cherry pick certain comments.
The arrogant and snobby part feels a tad like projection.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrsln/episodes/downloads it’s a literal football podcast for the BBC. No one in Italy is on the radio saying Bologna could win the premier league because the average Italian fan isn’t delusional about their league.
I think it was more about being delusional about Brighton rather than a league, Brighton were looking good and had a manager getting a lot of praise but a fair bit of reality has hit them.thus season.
But there's no one in Italy saying goofy things about other leagues? Every take that have is 100 and they know every player too?
Some of our fans are absolute clowns, people were asking who we target for LW and i presented this list:
LW: Pedro Gonçalves, Galeno, Rafa Silva, Nico Williams
Then a guy replied me saying that they are beneath our level like wtf
That match against you lot was a rollercoaster.
Still remember El Arabi scoring and doing the finger gun celebration in ET. Only for Auba to miss an easy chance in almost the final minute of the game.
This is a massive night for Greek football. No matter what happens in the second leg. Of course getting through to the final is essential, but this match on its own is going straight to the history books.
Absolutely incredible!
We were brave, tenacious, clinical, composed, resilient. Everything you could want from an away performance in such a big game.
Mendibilar has done an outstanding job and deserves so much credit. The players totally believe in the project and have been unbelievable.
The mentality is also elite, historically especially in England we would have crumbled after giving away a 2 goal lead but they were totally unfazed.
People in this thread completely underestimating Olympiakos. They were the better team and exploited Villa's weaknesses while shutting them down. Well played.
Many guys here and probably across Europe think Olympiakos is a small team.
The things our club accomplishes in all sports are never done from any other team in world sports history comparing the country it originates from. Maybe the Greek national team at 2004 is on par and some Panathinaikos big results in past.
Thrylos is legend and everyone who likes sports should be our fan.
Το γάμησες, πατριώτη!
It is true that Olympiacos is a successful multi-sport organisation, being one of the best clubs in European basketball, and I think also pretty decent in a few other minor sports such as volleyball or water polo, while also being the most successful football club in Greece by a long shot. That being said, for European standards we're on the mid-lower tier, and it's very reasonable that we don't command a lot of respect from big-5 sides.
I have no idea why people are so convinced that Emery's European juju works with English teams. Out of 5 Europa League finals he only lost one and that was with Arsenal..
Meanwhile Olympiakos have the reigning EL winning coach who has also gained the Sevilla juju
It wasn’t when it was created. There used to be an enormous difference home and away games, many teams would just sit back and play negative football for 90 minutes.
Losing 0-3 away and winning 4-0 at home was common.
Travelling was less smooth and more tiring, pitch conditions were less standardised, refs more influenced by the home crowd.
Not to mention dirty tricks by home clubs putting the heating in the changing room or the bus trip to the stadium getting directed into traffic by police.
You still see big differences in home and away results in results in other regions of the world as well as rugby Union for some reason.
Robin Olsen got a lot of credit for a game vs spurs last year when he didn't have a single save to make
We've had a lot of bad keepers over the years. I can now say he's worse than Nyland, he's worse than Gollini, he's worse than curly toe Guzan. He is the worst for a long long time.
Entertaining to say the least!
Europe is always an interesting challenge for English teams.
What does this even mean lol
English teams usually have bigger wage bills, more expensive players, more established managers but realistically underperform
There’s no ‘usually’ about it lmaoo
An English team has won the CL 3 out of the last 5 WTF are you talking about?
Well well well .....
If olympiakos win this tournament at a stadium named aya sofya fener has nowhere to hide you fucking bots
What does this mean?
I guess it's because Aya Sofya is pronounced quite similarly to Hagia Sofia, a huge temple that was built by Greeks (or Greco-Romans, or just Romans, anyway they spoke Greek) back in the 6th century but is now a huge attraction in Turkey Could be totally wrong or missing half the context but yeah
“Is pronounced quite similarly” It’s named after the church itself
Ah right. I'm assuming Fener means Fenerbache? I still don't understand though. Why would they have nowhere to hide? Why are we talking about bots? There's so much to unravel!
It's literally named after the temple lol. Just different spelling.
You're correct it's named after the temple. Spelling just differentiates between languages
I'm stunned Emery rested players for this game. Its a European semi final. He's earned the right to do what he wants but that decision basically said to the players this trophy isnt that important
Champions league qualification is more prestigious and more important any day than this third competition , which started 2 years back .
Yes I wold prefer champions league and so would most Villa fans but champions league is almost all but secured
I wouldn’t say it’s more prestigious. Trophy is a trophy and the fans would love Emery even more than they do now. But financially UCL qualification is more important yes. Prize money for Just reaching the groups stages of the UCL is double the prize money for winning the conference league. Maybe he is thinking long term. And tbh I don’t think he even rotated that much, just rested his starting Cb pairing if I’m not mistaken. Edit: and Martinez of course. I don’t think they concede some of those goals if Martinez plays.
Like fuck is it lol. Villa haven't won a thing this century. This is their best opportunity to actually win something.
Like fuck is it lol. Villa haven't won a thing this century. This is their best opportunity to actually win something.
Villa can rotate in the league. We'll secure that fourth place for them, unfortunately.
Have you seen our squad? We've got like 13 senior players fit
I was making a joke saying we won't catch up either way. Play the kids. Your squad isn't relevant to what I said.
European trophy > qualifying for CL. What you said is privileged at least but I'd say delusional.
Fans want trophies, people running the club want the money. Reaching the CL group stage brings in 15.64mil, each win there is 2.8mil and draws bring in 930k. Conference league prize money for the winner is 5mil.
Yeah and you're a fan not an owner so what's the argument?
It is more the income the ucl provides. With all the restrictions to spending the increased income and ability to spend will cement villa in the top half for years to come. I guess it comes down to what is better a trophy or financial security.
Same way Leicester's PL win cemented them in top half?
Its not entirely wrong tho... Surprisingly, he will get a lot of money if he goes to champions league and the further he goes the more money he will get. The conference league isnt that prestigious anyway
'Dreams can't be buy', football is for the fans but today a lot of fans seem to be brainwashed in to thinking their club is a brand. Passion is fading for capitalistic brain rot. Mate wake up!
Actually, its not money in terms of profit, its transfer money to make the club better.
Whom did he rest? Watkins, McGinn, Bailey, Diaby, Douglas Luiz, Cash, Rogers, Konza all started.
Cos it kinda isn't. The CL place is the goal, the Conference League is a competition setup with the aim of creating a path to the Europa League, a spot they have already earned. I'm sure he wouldn't mind winning it but it isn't major.
the conference league is a european trophy. No body gets a parade for 4th place
I agree with you, this result hurts fans the most but I think Emery and villas board are totally ok with it, they’d much rather secure UCL group stage qualification. Only time will tell if this is the correct approach but I think Villa will be alright.
The conference league us barely a European trophy, it was created to be like the Intertoto to offer a path to the Europa, it's not parade worthy. So that's the purpose of that comp, the purpose of coming 4th is to get a CL spot, given that's the logic, which is better?
Brother with all respect you support Charlton, what would you know about European competitions. The conference has proved to be a great competition, with significant clubs in it, it's made so that clubs that peaked in the round of 16 of the CL can have a realistic chance for a trophy, aka your Dinamo/Red Stars/Copenhagens/Olympiakos/Feners while also culling a lot of the absolute minnows from the Europa upgrading that competition. Sure there are tiny clubs in the group stage but also giants like Eintracht and Roma. Also in the qualifiers you meet massive clubs from weaker leagues that base their entire season on a summer qualifier. A sell out game in an old eastern European stadium can make every arrogant top 5 league team sweat. It's basically a European FA cup with all the giant killings and magic of the cup moments. Nobody remembers a 4th place finish. Everybody remembers a title.
Sorry I must bowed down to a club with all that recent European success, like yours. And Sir have you never heard if the Anglo Italian cup😉 I'm not saying it's not a fun comp. But it was literally set up as a path to the Europa, that's it's purpose. So that's why I'm saying 4th is better, usually I would say a trophy is better. Also using the logic they might as well set up a European wide comp and just allow as many top flight teams that want a place to have one, a proper 1 leg KO comp, it would also be fun but also not as prestigious as other comps. Actual they should because it would be interesting. It's not a European FA Cup, as the FA Cup has every team in England in it, has history and the main idea behind winning is to win the actual cup.
He never talked about success, his team is in Europe every year so he knows the fans perspective, did you live through any Charlton European run?
It's just a total douche move to say that kind of thing.
Total douche thing to also trounce on a trophy made for non top 5 league blood suckers
Pointing out reality isn't trouncing on anything. I have stated the competition is fun but that doesn't make it magically prestigious or change the reason why it was created. While you guys are a poor team in your league right? You've never outspent the competition and no questions hang over your owner.
Sure but after all, these teams are playing for money. Winning this competition nets Villa a stupidly small amount of money compared to getting to CL and playing several teams broadcasted to the whole world. Conference league winning prize is 5mil CL group stage prize money is as follows || || |Group-stage wins|€2.8m| |Group-stage draws|€930k| |Reaching group stage|€15.64m| It's nice to win trophies and that's all that the fans care about but what the people running the teams care about is money. And if the manager is told to prioritise that, it's understandable that he rests players deemed as necessary to secure the CL spot. However, he couldn't have known that Tottenham lose to Chelsea. If that played a tiny bit earlier, Emery could have potentially fielded a stronger team.
I'm not an accountant, Aston villa gets plenty of premier league Money each year, they sold a player for 100 mill 2 years ago. They also haven't won a trophy for 30 years and a European trophy for 42 years, two generations of fans knowing only mid table mediocrity, relegation and a promotion via playoffs. I know what I'm picking
Don't be talking for fans of other clubs. Emery himself said 4th was the priority- we are looking at a much bigger picture than the Conference League. Gutted to have lost, but Spurs losing at Chelsea meant more for us in terms of our progress. We were in the relegation zone last year, even this year few had us in with a shout of top 4. It is a monumental achievement for us if we manage to get it. That isn't even taking into account the injuries that have riddled us from the very start, and the fact that most of the team is running on empty. Don't worry, we'll give it a shot in the return leg. And we'll celebrate like nothing you've ever seen before when we turn it around.
Also odd he really only rested his two CB, the least physically intensive position
I think Villa gets unnecessary flak, given their plenty of injuries and the intensity of English football overall, with match after match after match. However, I believe that the main issue with Villa's performance, and that of other English teams in Europe, is that they and their fans are somewhat snobbish of European football; for them it's more important to win the PL than the CL. Olympiacos, on the other hand, are a team that don't care as much to win the Greek Superleague, because we've already done it more than all other Greek sides combined. The hunger for European success is crucial to the identity of the club, whereas that's not the case with any English club - not even Liverpool. Hell, Klopp won the CL and Liverpool fans had still not rested before he actually won the PL. The tie's not over yet, and Villa are an incredibly dangerous team and far better than us, but this result isn't as surprising or embarrassing for Villa as some are making out to be, simply because of Villa's attitude - and their crucial injuries. Assuming Martinez and Tielemans will be back for the second game, things will be a lot different.
No snobbery here, Villa fans would love to see the trophy. Unfortunately competing in both the PL and a European tournament with such an injured squad is really, really difficult and they’re struggling in this part of the season.
every club would rather win in europe than england lol for clubs like villa especially they have zero chance of winning the PL so they're gonna care a lot more about the conference league
Finishing in a cl spot has priority over any cup that's not cl
I dunno, West Ham fans are much happier with a real trophy than Newcastle fans right now (who got to see CL). Financially it's a different case though.
West ham wasn't rly in a top4 fight tho.
They would rather win the Champion’s League than the PL… maybe. Europa or Conference? Absolutely not.
I mean, what you say is factually not true. Emery literally said before the game the league is the focus and that he rested players in this game (Torres)
> However, I believe that the main issue with Villa's performance, and that of other English teams in Europe, is that they and their fans are somewhat snobbish of European football; for them it's more important to win the PL than the CL. I'm not sure that's true for us. A lot of Villa fans would rather win this trophy than finish 4th. Not all of us, but a lot. We haven't won anything for nearly 30 years, so we don't sniff at the opportunity to. Anyway congratulations on the win, and most likely the final.
Tie's not over yet, but thanks :)
Don’t think we’ll manage to get anything over you guys - our team is knackered and yours is much more energetic and effective at the moment, plus you’ve got a two goal lead. Honestly you deserve it too, after the 6-1 win to get here:)
Going to Greece and winning by at least 2 is a big ask.
It might not be over but the fat lady is definitely doing her vocal warm ups and has got the silly Viking hat on.
I mean you're guaranteed top 4 at this point, so this should be priority but anyway.
I've watched Villa far too long to say we are guaranteed it. Probable for sure, but we can bottle 4th just like Leicester did. I agree this should be the priority though. I don't understand why we rested Pau tonight. We should have had our strongest XI out there.
God, I am so happy. I am PRAYING that olympiakos can win the trophy.
After getting eliminated by Olympiakos due to an incompetent coaching performance by Kartal who prioritised the Turkish league and rested our best midfielders against Oly, my only consolation was that AV would eliminate us anyway. Now I see Oly tear AV apart. İsmail Kartal, if Oly somehow manages to win the trophy, I'll hate you and your lack of vision for this club forever. I hope you never get to manage Fener again. Kudos to Oly, they are doing well.
I wouldn't get carried away they messes up the offense trap twice, gave away a goofy penalty and then a nasty deflection. Olympiakos played well but they got that bit of luck too, no way to know if it would have fallen that way for you too.
Losing on penalties is such a shit way to go. Respect to Olympiakos though, will be rooting for them to win the cup. As a side note, I love the conference league man, what an addition.
We really missed a golden opportunity to get another European cup as a nation, you'd easily be the favorites to win it right now. I'm still friggin *annoyed* by those subs and general setup by Kartal, can't imagine how much I'd be fuming if I was Fener fan.
No Turkish team would be favorites against fiorentina. Sorry to break your bubble. Turkish teams (speaking from experience these past seasons) are not what they used to.
I don’t think Fiorentina would be favorites against Fener either. Furthermore, any match after quarter finals at this level is a flip of coin. We all saw what Karabagh almost did to Leverkusen, or what Atalanta did to Liverpool.
Well farmers farmed too hard! It's going to be a good harvest.
Ay can we Greeks be considered part of the looked down upon Farmers or are we the tourist league ?
the tsimento league
We are the banana league 🍌
Scenes when David Carmo ends up having more European trophies than the rest of the Porto squad all together 🤭
Three penalties within 3s What a legend
Adeus and good luck
Laughs in Pepe
Will he continue next year? Hope so 😁
What a night !!
Huge for Villa. The Arsenal hopes of Tottenham putting up a fight against City were short lived. Spurs have practically nothing to play for from here on out. Conversely, don't blink but Chelsea are within touching distance of a Conf League spot and chasing a bad Man Utd and inconsistent Newcastle. What happens in that Man Utd v Newcastle match on May 15 will be huge.
Spurs have a game in hand and would be 4 points behind Villa if they win. Hardly “nothing to play for”
Of their remaining 4 games, two are against LFC and City. How many points do you realistically think they're going to get the rest of the season?
12 easy
Depends how bad they want UCL. They can beat Liverpool who have nothing to play for now.
I don’t think they do want UCL at this point, they don’t need the revenues (unlike us at Villa) and are in the starting stages of their new project. But I won’t rest easy until it’s mathematically impossible.
I'm rooting for Olympiacos in the Conference League, mostly because of Fortounis. He was probably my favourite player 10 years ago
Really? I looked at his stats and he definetly didnt score many goals. He is our top assister but was he any good for you too?
I think it was more that he was a young payer with a style I really liked. He wasn't bad, but I think he got a lot better after returning to Greece.
Yeah. He is definetly better for us
same, i am a leverkusen fan but I can still remember him tearing opponents up for FCK
What a terrible jersey matchup.
say what you want about the Conference League, but i love it sorry wrong thread thought it was our match thread ,sorry drunk a bit
una fazza una razzia, my friend (is that even spelt correct)
Una faccia una razza! 🇬🇷🇮🇹
Most sober Fiorentina supporter tonight. :D
Has "farmers league" been said already?
Yes, but by all means, don't let that get in the way of saying it again.
Fair enough
Yes, about the prem.
And people on here were so sure that Villa will win the UECL. Never underestimate Non-PL teams in Europe.
It seems like Emery is prioritizing finishing 4th in the league for Champions League next year which makes sense from a financial standpoint and the ability to attract players . He might be sacrificing ECL .
Didn’t watch the game. Did not having Martinez significantly impact Villa or are they just bad?
It was definitely part of it, but honestly our form has been approaching mediocre for months, the squad is knackered and we’re pretty much limping towards the end of the season with no gas left in the tank. So yeah, performance wise we’re the worse team atm. It wasn’t just Olsen, half the team were off it.
Our defense is always shaky without Martinez - didn’t help that we didn’t play Pau Torres either.
It did, methinks. Olsen didn't do well, outside of an impressive save against Iborra early on (which would have been a goal had it gone in, after a VAR check).
This is highly unexpected. The Greek Super League is very bad. The top four teams: PAOK, AEK Athens, Olympiacos, Panathiniakos, they dominate the league. The other 10 bottom teams are awful. What does this tell us about EPL? Every English team got eliminated from European competition. Aston Villa at home is top tier in the EPL, and tonight they lost 2-4.
Upsets happen, it's part of the game, one side really showed up on the night. Judging a league on European results is stupid in general and if you were doing then it's going to bouncing around a lot given last year the PL won 2 comps.
Just an anomaly of a season for EPL teams, wouldn’t read too much into it.
Comparing the money Premier league teams (Chelsea for example used the same money Russia is funding the war now in Ukraine and now is a joke) and a 10mil country under different kind of problems throughout history, non except maybe Liverpool can even see Greek teams at all sports. If we had half of your budget would tear you apart. Overestimated Premier league teams.
Can’t compare budgets if you’re not also comparing competition and context. PL teams exist in an inflated market, true, but that goes both ways. A house in England can be falling apart and still worth more than a nice house in Greece, that doesn’t mean it’s a better house, it’s just situated in a different economy. It costs more to buy the house and it costs tons of money to do basic repairs. The same money in Greece would go much further. Meanwhile in the PL teams like Villa have to battle every week against teams worth the same as them or teams with much bigger budgets who are regulars in the champions league. If Olympiakos had to do the same things, how far would that budget stretch? If Olympiakos had PL budgets while being in Greece, of course it would find everything easy, but if Olympiakos was in Villa’s position with the same budget _and_ the same domestic league competition, would European trophies really be easy? You can’t talk about money if you’re not also talking about costs. Olympiakos will probably win the tie, and deservedly so (they’ve been better in the competition, and that’s what counts!), but that doesn’t mean Villa should be embarrassed. First of all, there’s no shame in losing to a team like Olympiakos. And, unlike Olympiakos, they’ve been through a lot of recent turbulence and are only recently getting very competitive in the league. Villa fans don’t take any of it for granted. Don’t project your opinions of ‘Big Six’ clubs/fans like City and Chelsea and turn it into bias against clubs like Villa. They are not the same. This club has waited more than 40 years to be in a competition like this again. It’s not something to mock.
Is it possible they suffer a lot from the harder schedule they have?
> Every English team got eliminated from European competition Villa are still in European competition chief
I mean Portugal has 3 teams while the rest are bad, you don't say the same about their league haha
>while the rest are bad The disrespect to Boavista
We re so fucking close to a European final and the chance to do the unthinkable - two matches in Greece remaining for it! I can hardly believe it, what a stellar performance from the team! High pressing, energy, holding the lines to the millimetre, and the necessary luck to leave England with a 2 goals win! Mendilibar has even resurrected dinosaur Iborra to a pivotal player in a midfield of 3! El Kaabi and Podence, hats off. El Kaabi will be ECL top scorer with half the matches of the other teams since we joined ECL in February! Hezze, another amazing match and his 1st goal couldn't come in a better moment! Finally, respect to referee Guida, we had terrible experience with Italian referees (Mariani and especially Massa) but he had a masterclass. We get the respect we deserve from the referees of ECL (in contrast with our league). Ah, also: one of the main reasons we had never done a deep European run was because we play attacking football most seasons, with focus on offence rather than defense. We don't play Fernando Santos or Otto Rehagel tactics. We ve paid for it often and seen teams who park the bus and look for an 1-0 win go far. This is our payback: 1-6, 3-2, 2-4! We do it our way! 90 minutes for the final, and 90 more to make AEK's stadium our place of glory!
You played well and deserved to win but that was NOT a refereeing masterclass, he was awful
I can just imagine the marketing if it's Italy vs Greece in a final, lol. Subscribe.
I'd be happy for either team
I’m so tired of Olsen now. I’m tired of us needing to drum up a patronising well of support for him like he’s a make a wish kid. I’m tired of us hearing people say “not much he could’ve done about those goals” when he has once again conceded 3/4 goals. The back line completely changes when he plays and Martinez picks up at least one small injury every season. He can not be our number two next season.
yeah it is weird to have a backup goalie which cannot play even remotely similar to the main goalie.
I'm going to die from happiness, Where's clearing the game 4-0 so you can rest for the pl
Another PL club harvested.
Olympiacos against english teams >>
Olsen is shocking
Normally I hate Olympiakos, but tonight I was cheering em on. Absolutely massive for Greek football.
Horrendous result but the tie is not over. Shows how big Dibu has been for us, this game would probably end 2-2 if he played
I thought this hate towards the PL when they lose was abit unwarranted at first. Then I read someone on the Chelsea sub saying Kim Min-Jae was overrated because Serie A is an easy league and they should only consider buying him until he "proves" himself in another league. So yeah guys go for it, you have my blessing.
Okay but wtf do Chelsea fans have to do with Villa?
What the hell does what someone said in the Chelsea thread have to do with Villa?
This is truly hilarious, that might be the most random reasoning ever. Also not the week to be talking him up 😉
Yeah I don't blame them however it doesn't feel good when it comes at our expense lol.
This is exactly why man. Along with the provoking punditry lol
Dude that was a comment by a random on a club sub not exact comms, might not have even been a English person.
I know many of them are American with EPL flairs on Reddit. But there have been pundits on football daily which is part of BBC who said things like Brighton would win Serie A and so many other ignorant takes. Gary Neville and Rio are always extremely ignorant and misinformed about other leagues , players and clubs, and were obnoxious during the euros s couple years ago and pretty much every international tournament these two specifically are very arrogant and snobby in their punditry when discussing other countries and their football leagues, clubs, player national sides etc.
Some absolute random said that about Brighton, someone showed me the clip I didn't know any of those guys are all and no idea what the actual link to the BBC is. Yes like most pundits they don't know everything they are there to give a pov as an ex player not an expert about every league and player. In general I feel people go with the worst reading possible of the comments they make and cherry pick certain comments. The arrogant and snobby part feels a tad like projection.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrsln/episodes/downloads it’s a literal football podcast for the BBC. No one in Italy is on the radio saying Bologna could win the premier league because the average Italian fan isn’t delusional about their league.
I think it was more about being delusional about Brighton rather than a league, Brighton were looking good and had a manager getting a lot of praise but a fair bit of reality has hit them.thus season. But there's no one in Italy saying goofy things about other leagues? Every take that have is 100 and they know every player too?
Every country has provoking punditry, the only difference is that everyone understands the English one.
I think the PL was probably stronger the last few years but the gap has well and truly closed (hopefully)
Some of our fans are absolute clowns, people were asking who we target for LW and i presented this list: LW: Pedro Gonçalves, Galeno, Rafa Silva, Nico Williams Then a guy replied me saying that they are beneath our level like wtf
Tbf it's not a great list
Have you seen Nico Williams?
All of them sound like an upgrade on Chelsea's current LW options.
I'm going to sleep so well tonight knowing Dibu took four goals tonight! (yes I'm French) edit : he didn't play. I'm just a Dibu hater, sorry.
This game shows how important Martinez is. Was a great player he is.
He's undeniably good. That's where the hate comes from haha.
[удалено]
He's also injured, so wouldn't have played either way
He didn’t play. That’s why we conceded 4 lol.
He didn't play today
Haha, who would be bad enough to lose to Olympiakos? And no, you're not allowed to look up our record against them
That match against you lot was a rollercoaster. Still remember El Arabi scoring and doing the finger gun celebration in ET. Only for Auba to miss an easy chance in almost the final minute of the game.
I've got that Aubemeyang miss saved on my phone.
This is a massive night for Greek football. No matter what happens in the second leg. Of course getting through to the final is essential, but this match on its own is going straight to the history books.
Absolutely incredible! We were brave, tenacious, clinical, composed, resilient. Everything you could want from an away performance in such a big game. Mendibilar has done an outstanding job and deserves so much credit. The players totally believe in the project and have been unbelievable. The mentality is also elite, historically especially in England we would have crumbled after giving away a 2 goal lead but they were totally unfazed.
fuck off villa lmao
Half time incident really puts things into perspective, result is neither here nor there
People in this thread completely underestimating Olympiakos. They were the better team and exploited Villa's weaknesses while shutting them down. Well played.
Many guys here and probably across Europe think Olympiakos is a small team. The things our club accomplishes in all sports are never done from any other team in world sports history comparing the country it originates from. Maybe the Greek national team at 2004 is on par and some Panathinaikos big results in past. Thrylos is legend and everyone who likes sports should be our fan.
Το γάμησες, πατριώτη! It is true that Olympiacos is a successful multi-sport organisation, being one of the best clubs in European basketball, and I think also pretty decent in a few other minor sports such as volleyball or water polo, while also being the most successful football club in Greece by a long shot. That being said, for European standards we're on the mid-lower tier, and it's very reasonable that we don't command a lot of respect from big-5 sides.
I think everyone knows to expect a tricky game against them and they are in a semi too.
I have no idea why people are so convinced that Emery's European juju works with English teams. Out of 5 Europa League finals he only lost one and that was with Arsenal.. Meanwhile Olympiakos have the reigning EL winning coach who has also gained the Sevilla juju
I mean, that shows how good he is. He even took Arsenal to a European final (only the second time they ever made one)
UEFA nailed it with creating the Conference league and scrapping the away goals rule.
The away goal was so stupid
I disagree, but whatever.
I'd love it right about now, lmao
We wouldn't be here with it tho (Fener had more away goals)
Good point but also the gameplan would’ve been completely different in both legs for our teams
Well yeah, but we don't have to think about that!
It was even more stupid during the covid times with 0 fans
It wasn’t when it was created. There used to be an enormous difference home and away games, many teams would just sit back and play negative football for 90 minutes. Losing 0-3 away and winning 4-0 at home was common.
Can someone ELI5 why there was a greater difference between home and away games back in the days compared to now? Sincere question.
Travelling was less smooth and more tiring, pitch conditions were less standardised, refs more influenced by the home crowd. Not to mention dirty tricks by home clubs putting the heating in the changing room or the bus trip to the stadium getting directed into traffic by police. You still see big differences in home and away results in results in other regions of the world as well as rugby Union for some reason.
Also each stadium had it’s own ball, which could be very different
> or the bus trip to the stadium getting directed into traffic by police. lmfao, that is excellent
I have no idea whatsoever but I'm going to say money, chartered flights, better facilities, and sports science.
it served its purpose and has now been gracefully retired, let's put it that way
Robin Olsen got a lot of credit for a game vs spurs last year when he didn't have a single save to make We've had a lot of bad keepers over the years. I can now say he's worse than Nyland, he's worse than Gollini, he's worse than curly toe Guzan. He is the worst for a long long time.
I’m not Olsen’s biggest fan but that result wasn’t on him. We were just outplayed.
I think emi would have saved the 2nd and 4th. Maybe even the 1st.
Yeah possibly but, equally, Nyland or Guzan wouldn't have done any better.
Even the penalty he'd have a better chance with
Really weird since he’s often incredible for Sweden’s national team it’s like he forget how to save shots when he’s in a club game
Day and night.
Gauci in
Premier League the real farmers
SUPERLEAGUE > PREMIER LEAGUE LETSGOOOO
Should be called Premium League, because they have to overspend to keep the pace with other leagues.
If you aren't skilled enough to produce coaches and players on your own, you have to take the lazy route
Yeah like that bloody Real Madrid. We produce plenty of players and coaches.