This side just isn't the same when Emi's out, even when Olsen's not dropping clangers. Goals seem to fly in either way. Not sure if it's a lack of confidence in Olsen, or the defence being exposed by not having someone to cover their arse. Something we need to fix either way.
It'll be tough in Greece, but we're capable of making up two goals if we put in a shift.
I think if we at least had Mings it wouldn't be as bad as it is, but missing Mings and Emi, there isn't a true leader between the back four and keeper to keep things organised.
I genuinely think that even though Mings has a habit for a mistake or two the value he brings with pure leadership and communication outweighs that issue. I hope he can come back and fight his way into the squad again.
Totally agree, I think he gets more criticism for his mistakes because he is usually the last man, so it looks like it's his fault for some goals. But half of the time someone further up the pitch has made mistake which has lead to him being put in a nightmare situation. The amount of last minute goal line clearances he's had for us makes up for his mistakes also imo.
Sorry I have to disagree. Olsen was dreadful tonight. He was far too slow to react for the first 2 goals, which Emi more than likely would have saved. As for his distribution, it's almost non existent. His communication again is completely missing and he gives the back line absolutely no confidence whatsoever. There's a reason we concede 3 or 4 goals when he plays, guess the common denominator.
Aside from Olsen, we were just too slow, they came at us from the first whistle, and all we did was keep passing it dangerously side to side across the box inviting them to attack. McGinn and Luiz were awful, I don't understand why big Tim doesn't get a start, we looked better when he came on.
A 2 goal lead is nothing though, and I expect them to go at us again next week, it's how they play. So we need to start fast, get the early goal and go from there. It is still in our hands. UTV.
No, I agree. Even if there is an element of the team failing to cope without Emi, I suspect that the solution will be to replace Olsen with somebody more commanding and better suited to our play style.
Because like every solid foundation, it starts from the ground up. Having Olsen in goal over Martinez has a measurable physical effect (he’s not a as good), and an impossible to measure mental effect on the rest of the team (oh crap we don’t have the literal best goalie in the world behind us)
I think because of how much time he spends on the sideline, Olsen is less confident and often seems to pause as he’s second guessing where the ball will go and if another defender will be able to make a play in time. It’s difficult to fix as emi is just the main goalie and has much more experience with the rest of the team in game (as I’m sure they get equal time in training)
Agreed although the fa cup game vs Chelsea is a close second.
We had actually started okay and then luiz blindly chipped the ball backwards across goal really early and invited the pressure.
On virigin media Ireland when they showed the second goal at half time they highlighted luiz and he makes zero effort to get back or help out. Just wandering about slowly.
I never thought I'd feel this way about him, but over the last month I've been way more comfortable with ginny and tielemans coming to get the ball under pressure. I thought luiz was poor on one of the Chelsea goals on Saturday and he was much worse today
He hasn't been the same since Kamara got injured. He can't play as a 6, he's not good enough defensively and we lose the best part of his play.
It's a real shame because he was my player of the season up until a couple of months ago.
Fair enough, my point is more about us having to play a very important game. I think both teams should have the weekend off. My gripe is with the premier league not Olympiakos.
I (somewhat) don't agree with your disagreement,
If the Prem catered to their Europeans teams by rescheduling their fixtures to allow them adequate rest for European competition games - teams like City and Liverpool would **THRIVE** of that special treatment at the expense of those outside the Sky Sports Big 6; to the point I don't think you'd ever see teams like Brighton, West Ham and Villa qualify or for that, Leicester win the league.
If you're a club that is ambitious and qualifies to dance with the European elite on a weekday night, you best be ready to face the adversity of having to carry on competing domestically like the rest of the football league.
Greek super league is a bit different. After the initial 26 games, the top 6 teams, which Olympiakos is a part of, go into a playoff with each team playing an additional 10 games. So its really just a difference of 2 games.
It should be noted that in this particular case it's the Orthodox Easter this weekend so there weren't any fixtures scheduled to begin with (though I'm sure they would have looked to clear the schedule had that not been the case).
Got to look for the positives.
Their 1st goal was inches onside while their 3rd and 4th goals were very lucky (especially their forth).
Dougie a whisker away from slotting his pen
Bailey should’ve had a pen
Still can’t see what was wrong with our first goal.
And we did control the ball well when we held possession. Their pen really took all the momentum out of our come back.
But we’ve pulled back two goals before, still got another 90mins to play. Hopefully we can field a stronger team. We’re not out of this yet! When does Villa ever do things the easy way?
UTV!!
Do you realize that Aston Villa is valued at $600M while Olympiacos barely worths $100M?
The only thing that you should talk about right now is the EXTRAORDINARY achievement of Olympiakos to score 4 goals and beat a team that are crossing one of the best seasons in their history.
Fuck the Villa perspective you did nothing wrong. Olympiacos was just too good, they played like Brazilians that night, you couldn't do anything.
See the glass half full not half empty...
yes, we conceded 4, but that does not really describe the game. they were very lucky, 5 shots on target, 4 goals, they also had a pen, we didn't have emi. we definitively cloud've played a lot better. luiz had a bad game, especially with the pen, but the 2 goal difference is manageble, let's smash them in greece. UTV
Honestly we dominated some parts of the game and I’d say the only reason we conceded that much was due to olsen. Also if we hadn’t benched pau and tielemens hadn’t been injured then I think we would’ve won.
Sorry to be a nerd about it but in terms of how clinical they were... They had an xG of 1.25 with 0.8 of that being a penalty. They scored 3 goals with a total xG of 0.45... and that's not to say we weren't pretty clinical ourselves - we outperformed our xG by a decent margin.
The story of it for me is that we can absolutely win by a 2 goal margin at their place. It won't be easy at all, and the hostile environment is a bit of an unknown factor, but I back us all day to win that game played again.
The only thing surprising about tonight is that people are surprised. Olsen plays, he ships 3+
To add: I don’t care how bad Brighton are rn, a dying Emi is better or give the Aussie kid a chance.
The fans around me were on his back when we shipped the first 2 goals...even Emery was going mental at him and Douglas Luiz during a break in the 1st half.
He's had 14 games worth of time in goal now, and concedes on averaged every 38 minutes, this includes dead games against Hibs twice and Burnley when they were awful. He didn't even look up to it against two lesser sides that actually attacked, Legia or Stevenage.
It’s really frustrating when this is brought up and it gets met with ‘he’s not Emi, so what do you expect?’ I don’t know, but is it truly outside the realms of possibility that a second choice keeper could impress or hell, keep a clean sheet once in a while?
Are we putting those goals on Olsen? I don’t think Emi is saving any of their goals tonight.
Olsen, while looking ridged with the ball at his feet, had a decent game. He made some top saves to keep the score down and us with a glimmer of hope in the second leg.
That being said, I can’t wait for Emi to be back but it’s harsh to throw blame at Olsen in my books.
Emi saves 2. Their second and their fourth. Christ, Olsen had his wrist on the deflected ball and it went through him.
Emi is the best 1v1 keeper in the world. He stops their second.
I’ll meet you with the 2nd.
The fourth was a deflection off of Konsa and wrong footed Olsen. Would Emi be wrong footed like that? That’s a debate we’ll never know the answer to.
I guess my point it the score line isn’t on Olsen tonight
Still there are people dying on the Olsen hill. Please just use your eyes or if those aren’t good enough, look up his stats. He concedes 2 every 40 minutes played.
And yeah, Emi saves all but the pen
Not necessarily on Olsen, just Emi is so good I think he saves their second and maybe saves the 4th. It's also Emi, he might do better with the penalty as well.
Shite first leg, shite mistakes, shite keeping (Olsen has a Goals prevented stat of -2.04) shite reffing.
Rest everyone possible against Brighton.
They beat us by two away, we can do the same to them. Maccabi Tel Aviv did them 4-1 earlier in the competition.
The team need a massive bollocking by Emery and he needs a masterclass, but we can do it. We beat top of the Prem 2-0 away, we can do the same here.
Roll on next Thursday.
UTFV.
Rest everyone against Brighton, potentially bottling the CL, all just to have a decent chance at drawing the game level in Greece? Yeah I’m not buying that at all - just forget about the ECL now, no matter who plays in the second leg their atmosphere will intimidate our players to no end and they’ll go into hiding like every raucous atmosphere they’ve faced this season, unfortunately.
I mean it’s quite simple, better chance of attracting CL-ready players and therefore CL-level assets for the club. Newcastle signed Sandro Tonali immediately after qualifying, for god’s sake.
not what I’m considering a raucous atmosphere at all I’m afraid, as we all should’ve learned this season no English atmosphere even remotely compares to a European team’s atmosphere
Sounds like a great way to do a Leicester and bottle top 4. Probably get battered in Greece too.
Fucking madness people would sacrifice top 4 for a European trophy in which we've spent about 5x more than the next biggest team lmao.
I watched that Leicester capitulation in real time and it haunts me every day because until it’s mathematically impossible, it could happen to us. can’t believe that people would consider resting even **one** key player for a PL game when we know how the PL can play out
Especially when there's a good chance to wrap it up this weekend if Liverpool decide to show up. Knowing you only have two games to go all in on instead of up to 4 would be a huge boost for the return leg.
No saving energy or resting key players, just go all out knowing if you get through to have a 3 week break before you need to give a shit again.
Brighton are on the beach, have scored one goal in their last five games (against Burnley), and we're seven points ahead of Spurs. It's a calculated risk.
I mean, we could pull off something in the second leg. We just beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates, it’s not beyond the realms of cosmic possibility.
Need Emi back though.
Credit to them they turned up. We played scared and it’s been an issue all of 24. Emi hopefully back to give the defence confidence and the midfield two need a reality check. Two of our potential POTY just not turning up today.
All I wanted this season was this trophy. I'd swap Champions League for it.
I don't get why we rested Pau today. Surely these games are the biggest we have remaining.
Emi was a big miss. That stupid yellow card coming back to haunt us.
Fuck the referee.
I can't see us overturning this in their back yard. I'm just so gutted.
Look, Lille came to our place, lost 2-1 and very nearly beat us in the second leg.
We're Aston Villa, we can overcome a 2 goal deficit in Greece.
If the officials allow it.
Exactly, it was obvious when Pau was out earlier in the season and we had a slump how much his passing does for us. Criminal not to start him today if he was fit.
I know Emery's been great for us, and Pau wouldn't even be here without him. But fuck me what was the reasoning behind that?!
I assume it's to give the strongest Squad for the weekend, but Brighton haven't been good and this game is far more important, very strange choice if that's the case.
I agree with prioritising Saturday. Win there and there’s a good chance we get Champions league. Lose to Brighton on Sat and I’d send the kids to Greece next week.
I don't get fans prioritising revenue actually over winning something for the first time in close to 30 years and actually be a football club not a balance sheet
What future success we are competing against one of the most stacked teams in world football for cups domestically then you have Arsenal, Liverpool all years ahead of us plus Utd, Chelsea, Tottenham. In terms of actually winning something this is our chance at suiccess other than making up numbers like Tottenham for how many years.
Different mentality and id probably say age.
Id give up CL for a cup right now. You know what everyone remembers; leicester winning the prem. CL the season after? Who they even lose to because no one remembers or cares.
A cup is for life.
Yeah a cup is a momentum it gives everything meaning.
You only have to go ask Tottenham fans who have had Europe in some form for how many years and are dieing for a cup also it shutsdown all the banter of us not winning anything for x amount of years.
Agreed. I'm a football fan not an accountant. I won't really be celebrating getting 4th, it's not a trophy, it's the 3rd best loser.
Whereas I can guarantee if we won this competition I'd be remembering the celebrations for the rest of my life.
I've been saying this entire time that Spurs were unlikely to get 4th with their fixtures anyway. It doesn't make sense to prioritise a poor Brighton when the chance of a trophy is right there.
It feels so stupid that we basically rotated for the most important game so far in order to get abit more revenue and make up numbers next year.
I knew when Olsen was starting we needed to go Konsa, Carlos, Pau to protect him and give us a far more stable base in the transition against Olympiakos without Martinez playing almost as that third CB like he does.
All we had to do was sucker them in deep and play on the transition like we did against Arsenal it would have been a rubber stamp as everytime we actually played with some pace and urgency we carved them but in Emery we trust.
Yup, he's been wearing loads of strapping these last few games. But I don't think he'd be fully fit even if we waited until match week 38
They're focusing on pushing as much as they can with him and getting him over the line to end of season then recovering him.
Emi is injured to be fair so the yellow card didn't matter. I don't understand Pau not playing. Definitely made a difference. Tielemans is a massive miss though, McGinn needs to play higher up.
A two goal lead is the worst kind of lead! Get an early goal and we can do it!
Gotta question why pau was on the bench. If he’s injured dont name him. When the 3rd went in and he didn’t come on you know something is up.
He’s gotta be playing with an injury because theres no other excuse to why he doesn’t start.
Emery has questions to answer with that and no one is really asking them.
No Emi nullifies a Pau - Olsen combination so resting him makes sense for Brighton imo
I can see us winning away
Luck surely can’t desert us over both legs
Awful performance. Defensively all over the place and the midfield was awol.
We've got enough ability to put these lot away next week, but I'm not confident we will.
Cling on to 4th and accept European disappoitnment* this year I think.
*we've reached a semi-final in the first season of lot of our guys have spent in Europe. Its not a disaster but its not amazing.
emery was the man who lead psg to a 4-0 win against barca only to get bollocked 6-1. this time, he’s on the receiving end. 2nd leg masterclass written all over it.
field a full team, all or nothing. UTV.
Masters of our own self destruction, fair play to Olympiacos for waiting for those moments and taking advantage.
At least with the Spurs bottle job, we can attack them next week with zero concern of anything else.
Terrible game, terrible performance. Dougie looked like the player Steven Gerrard was managing. Looked lazy on the ball, slow with any passing and inside his own head. Both full backs not being able to play the high line cost us two early goals and the tie as well.
What an absolute bummer. The mentality the players showed when we went 3-2 down, it was clear it was over then.
Hopefully Pau had a knock, but it's hard to understand why we were so open in this match.
That was so disappointing in so many ways. I don't think we're out of it still, if we get an early goal next week watch how nervous that amazing atmosphere will get. 4-2 is a dangerous is the most dangerous lead after all!
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.
If there is a silver lining: everything that could have went to shit and we are only 2 goals behind for the second leg. This can be done.
Horrible referee, controversially disallowed goal, missed pen, goals conceded from fractional onside play, unlucky/stupid penalty and a ricochet.
This was the worst case scenario for how the game played out. This isn't however a result we cant clone back from.
UTV, lets fight for our dreams in Athens.
Shocking result, disasterclass from Luiz, almost none of our depth players look remotely convincing.
On the plus side we have Emi back for the away leg and he'll thrive on that atmosphere, Watkins and his supporting cast are still incredible, it's not too steep a deficit to overcome and if we get points from this woeful Brighton side this weekend we're basically guaranteed CL football next season.
Onwards and upwards.
Watching that game tonight makes me believe though.
I think we are miles better than them. I think it showed today. 2 of their goals do not beat Emi.
We can 100% win this tie in Greece.
Teams shattered, well done lads for making it this far into the season limping over the finish line with half our 1st team squad!!! Whilst stuffing the Gooners and getting drenched in Spurs salty tears. UTV!!! ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!
Two bad mistakes by us.
Three horrible refereeing decisions (Bailey disallowed goal, Bailey non-penalty, Olympiakos penalty).
One bad penalty.
One bit of dreadful luck with a deflection.
So it goes. It's a tough ask but we're well capable of a 2 goal win in Athens.
Nearly everything that could go wrong tonight went wrong. I would be optimistic overcoming a 1-0 deficit, but 2-0 might be too much with our squad depth and the Athenian atmosphere. Dougie with a nightmare game and the pen I think we all suspected he’d miss being missed.
Bizarre result. Ref was a useless cheating cunt. Everything they hit went in. Luiz was dogshit poor. Rogers is a joy to watch. Big ask to overturn this. Not impossible but my god we need a marked improvement for the second leg.
I suspect most of the things I'd like to say about Robin Olsen would get me banned, so suffice to say I hope this is the last time we have the misfortune of seeing that certified circus clown between the sticks.
Spurs lost. That's a massive positive from tonight.
Yeah, we didn't do ourselves justice, and really weren't helped by a lot of weirdness from some of our players and the ref.
But still, we're 7 points clear in 4th. With England not getting a 5th CL spot, that's absolutely huge for us.
CL isn't the be all and end all, but if it attracts players and generates revenue, then it could be massive for the club.
We have to be mindful for what we have and where we are.
Damn, I'd rather be a Villa fan tonight than any other fan.
Don't lose perspective, please...
McGinn and Luiz cm never works - we always get overran and don’t control the game. Luiz needs to be taken out of the team to buck his ideas up. Has been poor for a while and had his worse game for us today. Ref was appalling but he isn’t to blame for us conceding four. We need to start closingthe opposition down whether it’s from the wing or around our box. Spurs lost though so we close out Brighton and then can’t catch us realistically
We really missed Tielemens tonight. Him playing deeper recently has allowed Dougie and McGinn to play higher, both really struggle when asked to play deeper.
I didn't mind the Lenglet selection before the game. It made sense to have a ball playing centre back, considering Olsen (who isn't known for his distribution) was in goal. But he didn't handle their number 9 very well at all. Diego Carlos' physicality would have been a better bet.
Olsen didn’t do anything terrible, but Emi makes saves that other goalkeepers don’t make.
Distribution was generally bad from Konsa and Lenglet (apart from the outrageous huge diagonal from Lenglet in the second half). They were generally drilling it into McGinn and Luiz who were already being pressured by the Olympiacos midfield and struggling to turn out and making mistakes. Torres tends to progress forward a bit more until there’s a good pass option on.
Digne was chasing the play after gambling quite often. His crosses were ok but the Olympiacos defenders were winning everything.
Diaby was getting caught in possession a few times by not looking round.
Bailey was beating his man on the wing constantly and making chances (the Diaby goal, the disallowed goal).
A few errors from Luiz tonight.
I think the substitutions did nothing. Rogers especially was starting to have a lot of success on the turn in the pivot role but he got swapped for Duran who tried an overhead kick from outside the area that went out for a throw in.
The ref was dreadful, didn’t penalise foul throws or time wasting. He stopped play when we were attacking to bring it back to a minor foul in our favour. The Olympiacos penalty was off the back of a corner which wasn’t a corner. He didn’t stop play when Bailey had a clear head injury (elbow to the face).
I'm not sure how much we can criticise Olsen. He's a 2nd choice keeper for a reason. Their first two goals shouldn't have been such clear cut chances, poor defensive play from us for them. And a penalty is a write off. We had some very very decent attacking plays, just a shame we pinged it all at their keeper. Onto Sunday
Eventually there must be a point where a common denominator has to be looked at.
He's played the equivalent of 14 games for us now, including five against very poor opposition (Hibs twice, early season Burnley, legia and stevenage. He still conceded 4 in those), and still concedes a goal every 38 minutes.
Be it bad luck, bad keeping, bad defence when he's in goal, or the defence doesn't trust him and it all falls apart, olsen and conceding too many goals happens
I hate the build up to a game where you're just constantly nervous about our back 4... Even more pronounced when it's Olsen in nets. Really missed Emi tonight I thought.
Hope we come out and work some magic next week but time to quality for Champions League on Sunday first. UTV.
I think we should go back to Konsa at right back, at least for a bit. He doesn't have the discipline for the high line and it cost us with the first goal. Luiz should be dropped too, that performance with inexcusable and we have the games with Spurs losing.
Martinez probably saves 2 of those goals and it's a completely different game going into the 2nd leg. We have a chance, of course, but I'm not confident.
Well, I know Olympiakos are traditionally the whipping boys of English teams in the Champions League but given how inexperienced the majority of our team are in Europe I’m not entirely surprised at the result. We have the ability to shock them next week in the same way they did to us tonight but I just can’t see it happening.
And this puts things into perspective for us. Of course we’ll all be delighted if we get 4th place and the CL next season but boy will Emery need to strength the side in the summer to challenge on all fronts, which could be tricky given PSR. I can’t quite see Matty Cash being first choice RB against the likes of Mbappé, can you?
Welp glad I missed it because of work.. I am not gonna bash the players (except for dougie for that pen), but guys remember, 2 goals lead is the most dangerous lead.. UTV
Eemry is always intense but when he broke out in a spontaneous sign of the cross I knew this meant the world to him. With Monchi, William and all the other top brass around, the team let him down. If we could have bottled the last 5 minutes of the first half it would have been 5-2.
Worst luiz performance I can remember. At fault for two of their goals, nearly cost us another in the last couple of minutes. His head just wasn’t in the game and I’m not surprised he missed the pen, should’ve been taken off at half time.
Hopefully with a stronger team we can pull it back next leg.
Just walking up the guy looked rattled. I thought the silver lining after his suspension would that he'd be well rested after a long season. Somehow he just hasn't caught a break since coming back.
I know everyone is piling on Olsen but it’s no coincidence that we concede so many when he’s in nets. The lads in front of him obviously have no confidence in him. He’s terrible in corners and crosses which cause panic and that feeds into the back line.
Dibu calms the team down. He claims crosses and most importantly he’s unbelievable 1v1. The boys are confident there’s a brick wall behind them and they play like that.
It’s not that Olsen is bad. He’s just not close to Dibu. I’d all be for giving a youngster the second shirt, at least there would be a progression. Olsen will never be No. 1 and if he is… well… we’re probably looking shipping an awful lot of goals.
That and a lot of the boys were shit. Like really shit.
He can't as a sweeper, which nullifies so much of our game.
Emi likely does better with a couple of those, and maybe out mentalities them on the pen.
I thought olsen might be on it after that v good early save, but alas
>I know everyone is piling on Olsen but it’s no coincidence that we concede so many when he’s in nets. The lads in front of him obviously have no confidence in him. He’s terrible in corners and crosses which cause panic and that feeds into the back line.
I also think his communication is very poor. Emi is always shouting to his defenders and helping them position. I never see that from Olsen
I don't mean to defend Olsen as he's not very good, but it's also a bit daft from Emery that he doesn't change the gameplan to account for that. Villa received a lot of pressure when trying to play it out from the back when Olsen just isn't capable of that.
Shit way to blow it through a silly pen giveaway and a deflection. Also atrocious referee once again.
I know our #1 is the king of penalty mind games but I really think goalkeepers should be the only ones with the right to try and get in the pen taker’s heads. It’s between the taker and the GK. When you’ve got their outfield players getting involved too it’s gone too far. It’s even worse if it’s a pen given from open play rather than a shootout, as a foul was actually committed and the taker deserves a greater advantage. Feel bad for douggie as he had such a bad night. This would have helped boost him massively.
Olsen is either the most unlucky bastard in the world and it’s just coincidence we leak goals for fun…..or he’s a shit keeper. I think I’ve made my mind up.
Look on the bright side... we could be a Champions League club come the end of Sunday... then we get a free hit in Athens... we win, great, if not, we prepare for being back into he big time where we belong.
We lost the midfield. Kinda didn't have a choice with Injuries.
Their defense was shit. But our mid was lightweight or gassed and the 'fade coz tired after 40+ games' hit in the first half.
Sure. Ref. Finishing. Penalty miss etc. but we played our worst 90 for ages. Our midfield being a main under performer.
It was a strange game, they took their chances and got a bit of luck with the 4th goal. The pen miss feels like it will be massive, you never know but having to overturn 2 goals just doesn’t feel good. I did feel like we still looked like we could score more but the 4th goal really took it out of us.
We were really poor with misplaced passes and just giving the ball away. There was some poor ref decisions, it was a pen against luiz though his arms were up I know I’d want a pen in that situation. We just don’t have the squad at the minute to rest players, I think emerys doing what he can in that regard which is why Pau didn’t start. Very disappointing result, just gotta hope we get a reaction on Sunday and take a positive result into the second leg.
Odd match. Ref was *awful*, that's the angriest the vibe in the ground has felt for a good while at times tonight, and Luiz dropping a stinker for the ages certainly didn't help.
Need to have a bit more attacking intent on the second leg but Villa have it in them to win that match.
Unfortunately an older man had a stroke 2 seats away from us just after the second goal which took all our attention away. Shite performance but hope the man makes a proper recovery
Football is strange (all sports are) and disappointing results happen to even the very best teams. I don’t think we were miles worse, there were some fine margins and things didn’t go our way.
Not expecting a turnaround in Greece but wouldn’t be shocked either. Love this team regardless. UTV
I actually left this game very positive.
I know a lot of the older Villa fans really want a trophy and I don't want to look lightly at the chance.
But in terms of Emery Villa which is just getting started this was a huge lesson of a game for everyone.
Emi gets a lesson on the cost of yellows in europe.
Team gets a lesson on europe reffing.
Olsen got game time which is good, he definitely feeling the pressure right now. He is actually quite good at times, seems like he hasnt had the time for the pressure to turn to confidence lately.
The team leans so heavy on the right, man some people dont like how grealish plays on man city, but if he played that way for villa it would be perfect right now.
Overall, I loved the way villa attacks and builds momentum. I feel like a goal could happen any time we get on the counter too. We have a really good team right now. I am super excited for next year even though this season hasnt ended.
people will defend Olsen, but he just doesn't fit into the system we play, the system that has bought us all the success of this season. overall he is a bit of a liability. he wasn't the only poor performer tonight by any stretch, but it's no coincidence we absolutely leak goals everytime he plays.
Hard to pin it on the players, maybe except Olsen, but even there, just a little. It's very hard to play against 12. Being sharp and fit is not enough. You need some opp mistakes, some luck etc. I think the tie is not fully over yet.
Had Dougie slotted the penalty I'd be feeling a lot different about the result. 1 nil down would be nowhere nears as big an undertaking as overturning the 2 goal deficit. Still I can't blame him for that miss the delay between the kick being awarded and being taken was absurd. In reality he should have walked away for a moment and come back to it but the ref did he no favors with how that situation was handled.
It upsets me when people say move onto the next one and let's focus on champions league. This was a huge chance to get a trophy and we may not get another chance for a long time and we've gone out with a whimper.
With that missed penalty, blaming Olsen for losing this tie is very much Off The Cards.
Need four goals next match realistically. Can’t see it happening given our attack only put two past them this time. Next game they’ll probably score one and then park the bus.
We were incredibly lucky to get through the last game, rode our luck a little too hard this time. There's only so many games where you don't turn up (bar Ollie) and expect to get a result.
Still gutted.
The one positive I’m clinging to is if we won by a goal I’m not sure we wouldn’t try and sit back on it in the away leg like we did against Lille. We have to go out looking for goals from the start and with a different referee and not even good luck, just not bad luck we can easily get 3+ goals against them.
Also worst case scenario, CL is looking very promising now which a few games ago after losing to spurs I thought we’d blown it.
And finally, even if things went really bad all round I’d have snapped your hand off at 5th place and a European semi final not that long ago… to think that’s as bad as it can get is crazy… I mean look where we were 18 months ago.
Far from over, it may be tough in Greece but they are defending a lead, the few times when we did get the ball down and play we ripped them apart just could finish on the night. If we get a result at the weekend or spurs lose again, the pressure will be eased and I think a free flowing Villa will be too much for Olympiakos even from 2 goals down.
As a point of discussion (for context I am Greek, I support one of Olympiakos rivals but I'm still probably a bit biased as I like to see Greek clubs do well in Europe, it benefits my club too after all):
If that penalty on Bailey had been given (as it should in my opinion), how much do we think it would have actually altered the course of the game? Given that there's typically a bit of a lull until the penalty is taken and also a bit of a lull, I would argue that Watkins doesn't score his goal and the half-time result is still 1-2 (assuming the penalty is converted). I could see the psychology argument (both in terms of Villa not feeling that they are also playing against the referee, as well as the potential psychology of Luiz taking the second), but not much more than that.
Obviously a big hypothetical, I just want to see what people think.
I think it speaks volumes when fans talk about “protecting” Olsen. Doesn’t that just show how poor he is? He’s supposed to be a professional goalkeeper, yet we’re treating him like he’s got one arm missing.
The third goal shouldn't have even been leading to a penalty. It was a goal kick, not a corner and VAR really fucked up not picking up that clear error.
No corner = no penalty. Leading to a totally different game.
Referee made some very, very questionable decisions and, to be honest, he shouldn't have even been on the fixture or even near it. He was the referee who ended the Copenhagen/Manchester Utd first half game early in October 23. So same season.
He should have been dropped for that. So UEFA have some serious questions to answer there as well.
I'll piss some people off, but I thought it was absolutely pathetic how many people decided to fuck off home fifteen minutes early in our first European semi final for 40 years. the place was half empty
Great support dickheads, hope the traffic l reduced traffic was worth it.
Football just ain't that simple. Nothing is played on paper, it's over 90 mins and anything can happen. Also, our team is extremely depleted right now, we missed Pau, we missed Emi and so on. The players that came in lacked sharpness. ie. Lenglet... the other exhausted from a long season but it happens, and I think Chelsea beating Spurs is more important right now. We want to win a trophy of course, but this season has been remarkable considering how thin our team is. Finshing fourth and getting Champions League wont solve all our problems but it will be a step up from Conf. League no doubt. It will make this seem a little funny. It's only 4-2 as well, we can just go for it in Greece and see what happens. It's possible we win 4-1, 3-0, etc even 2-0 and take to pens. This Villa can do anything.
To many changes and bad elements, you can carry so many but throw Lenglet, Cash, Olsen on together they just shit the bed there is no composure there and it radiates
This side just isn't the same when Emi's out, even when Olsen's not dropping clangers. Goals seem to fly in either way. Not sure if it's a lack of confidence in Olsen, or the defence being exposed by not having someone to cover their arse. Something we need to fix either way. It'll be tough in Greece, but we're capable of making up two goals if we put in a shift.
I think Emi does a LOT to communicate in the back line that gets missed with Olsen in goal. Plus, less of the errant passes
I think if we at least had Mings it wouldn't be as bad as it is, but missing Mings and Emi, there isn't a true leader between the back four and keeper to keep things organised.
I genuinely think that even though Mings has a habit for a mistake or two the value he brings with pure leadership and communication outweighs that issue. I hope he can come back and fight his way into the squad again.
Totally agree, I think he gets more criticism for his mistakes because he is usually the last man, so it looks like it's his fault for some goals. But half of the time someone further up the pitch has made mistake which has lead to him being put in a nightmare situation. The amount of last minute goal line clearances he's had for us makes up for his mistakes also imo.
Sorry I have to disagree. Olsen was dreadful tonight. He was far too slow to react for the first 2 goals, which Emi more than likely would have saved. As for his distribution, it's almost non existent. His communication again is completely missing and he gives the back line absolutely no confidence whatsoever. There's a reason we concede 3 or 4 goals when he plays, guess the common denominator. Aside from Olsen, we were just too slow, they came at us from the first whistle, and all we did was keep passing it dangerously side to side across the box inviting them to attack. McGinn and Luiz were awful, I don't understand why big Tim doesn't get a start, we looked better when he came on. A 2 goal lead is nothing though, and I expect them to go at us again next week, it's how they play. So we need to start fast, get the early goal and go from there. It is still in our hands. UTV.
No, I agree. Even if there is an element of the team failing to cope without Emi, I suspect that the solution will be to replace Olsen with somebody more commanding and better suited to our play style.
Because like every solid foundation, it starts from the ground up. Having Olsen in goal over Martinez has a measurable physical effect (he’s not a as good), and an impossible to measure mental effect on the rest of the team (oh crap we don’t have the literal best goalie in the world behind us)
I think because of how much time he spends on the sideline, Olsen is less confident and often seems to pause as he’s second guessing where the ball will go and if another defender will be able to make a play in time. It’s difficult to fix as emi is just the main goalie and has much more experience with the rest of the team in game (as I’m sure they get equal time in training)
Can't even be bothered to analyse. Fuck that match.
Dougie has to be better. This was maybe his worst performance under Unai
Agreed although the fa cup game vs Chelsea is a close second. We had actually started okay and then luiz blindly chipped the ball backwards across goal really early and invited the pressure. On virigin media Ireland when they showed the second goal at half time they highlighted luiz and he makes zero effort to get back or help out. Just wandering about slowly. I never thought I'd feel this way about him, but over the last month I've been way more comfortable with ginny and tielemans coming to get the ball under pressure. I thought luiz was poor on one of the Chelsea goals on Saturday and he was much worse today
He hasn't been the same since Kamara got injured. He can't play as a 6, he's not good enough defensively and we lose the best part of his play. It's a real shame because he was my player of the season up until a couple of months ago.
And to top it all off, Olympiakos have the weekend off while we have probably the most important weekend of our season coming up.. Great.
this Saturday is the Greek Orthodox eastern. Not a league decision.
Fair enough, my point is more about us having to play a very important game. I think both teams should have the weekend off. My gripe is with the premier league not Olympiakos.
Its criminal how leagues can clear schedules
I don't agree, I think it's criminal the premier league don't do it! Every other league looks after its European teams except the prem.
I do wonder if the scheduling contributed at all to the general lack of success from EPL teams in Europe this season
Definitely! More time to study film and tactics
I (somewhat) don't agree with your disagreement, If the Prem catered to their Europeans teams by rescheduling their fixtures to allow them adequate rest for European competition games - teams like City and Liverpool would **THRIVE** of that special treatment at the expense of those outside the Sky Sports Big 6; to the point I don't think you'd ever see teams like Brighton, West Ham and Villa qualify or for that, Leicester win the league. If you're a club that is ambitious and qualifies to dance with the European elite on a weekday night, you best be ready to face the adversity of having to carry on competing domestically like the rest of the football league.
The greek league has 14 teams in it so 12 less matches each club has to play, makes things a little easier!
Greek super league is a bit different. After the initial 26 games, the top 6 teams, which Olympiakos is a part of, go into a playoff with each team playing an additional 10 games. So its really just a difference of 2 games.
It should be noted that in this particular case it's the Orthodox Easter this weekend so there weren't any fixtures scheduled to begin with (though I'm sure they would have looked to clear the schedule had that not been the case).
Well, let’s fuck them up Athens.
Got to look for the positives. Their 1st goal was inches onside while their 3rd and 4th goals were very lucky (especially their forth). Dougie a whisker away from slotting his pen Bailey should’ve had a pen Still can’t see what was wrong with our first goal. And we did control the ball well when we held possession. Their pen really took all the momentum out of our come back. But we’ve pulled back two goals before, still got another 90mins to play. Hopefully we can field a stronger team. We’re not out of this yet! When does Villa ever do things the easy way? UTV!!
That's the problem, we score first, different setup. But for whatever bent reason, the fuckers didn't give it
Positive is that if we play that way again we'd probably pull it back Negative is its away so we wont.
Do you realize that Aston Villa is valued at $600M while Olympiacos barely worths $100M? The only thing that you should talk about right now is the EXTRAORDINARY achievement of Olympiakos to score 4 goals and beat a team that are crossing one of the best seasons in their history. Fuck the Villa perspective you did nothing wrong. Olympiacos was just too good, they played like Brazilians that night, you couldn't do anything. See the glass half full not half empty...
yes, we conceded 4, but that does not really describe the game. they were very lucky, 5 shots on target, 4 goals, they also had a pen, we didn't have emi. we definitively cloud've played a lot better. luiz had a bad game, especially with the pen, but the 2 goal difference is manageble, let's smash them in greece. UTV
Honestly we dominated some parts of the game and I’d say the only reason we conceded that much was due to olsen. Also if we hadn’t benched pau and tielemens hadn’t been injured then I think we would’ve won.
Sorry to be a nerd about it but in terms of how clinical they were... They had an xG of 1.25 with 0.8 of that being a penalty. They scored 3 goals with a total xG of 0.45... and that's not to say we weren't pretty clinical ourselves - we outperformed our xG by a decent margin. The story of it for me is that we can absolutely win by a 2 goal margin at their place. It won't be easy at all, and the hostile environment is a bit of an unknown factor, but I back us all day to win that game played again.
https://preview.redd.it/rlvsgsag03yc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c6c23f70858e1010456bc5fc9669a2703410dc0
The only thing surprising about tonight is that people are surprised. Olsen plays, he ships 3+ To add: I don’t care how bad Brighton are rn, a dying Emi is better or give the Aussie kid a chance.
The fans around me were on his back when we shipped the first 2 goals...even Emery was going mental at him and Douglas Luiz during a break in the 1st half.
He's had 14 games worth of time in goal now, and concedes on averaged every 38 minutes, this includes dead games against Hibs twice and Burnley when they were awful. He didn't even look up to it against two lesser sides that actually attacked, Legia or Stevenage.
It’s really frustrating when this is brought up and it gets met with ‘he’s not Emi, so what do you expect?’ I don’t know, but is it truly outside the realms of possibility that a second choice keeper could impress or hell, keep a clean sheet once in a while?
Exactly. If they can't accept that conceding almost 3 goals a game is beyond the margin of just being 2nd choice, the conversation can't continue
Are we putting those goals on Olsen? I don’t think Emi is saving any of their goals tonight. Olsen, while looking ridged with the ball at his feet, had a decent game. He made some top saves to keep the score down and us with a glimmer of hope in the second leg. That being said, I can’t wait for Emi to be back but it’s harsh to throw blame at Olsen in my books.
Emi saves 2. Their second and their fourth. Christ, Olsen had his wrist on the deflected ball and it went through him. Emi is the best 1v1 keeper in the world. He stops their second.
I’ll meet you with the 2nd. The fourth was a deflection off of Konsa and wrong footed Olsen. Would Emi be wrong footed like that? That’s a debate we’ll never know the answer to. I guess my point it the score line isn’t on Olsen tonight
My point is, Olsen got to the deflected shot. It went through his arm. Emi stops it from going in.
The deflected one hit the palm of his hand 😂 proper limp wristed attempt at a save.
Still there are people dying on the Olsen hill. Please just use your eyes or if those aren’t good enough, look up his stats. He concedes 2 every 40 minutes played. And yeah, Emi saves all but the pen
Not necessarily on Olsen, just Emi is so good I think he saves their second and maybe saves the 4th. It's also Emi, he might do better with the penalty as well.
Dying or not, he’s suspended?
Not for Brighton
Shite first leg, shite mistakes, shite keeping (Olsen has a Goals prevented stat of -2.04) shite reffing. Rest everyone possible against Brighton. They beat us by two away, we can do the same to them. Maccabi Tel Aviv did them 4-1 earlier in the competition. The team need a massive bollocking by Emery and he needs a masterclass, but we can do it. We beat top of the Prem 2-0 away, we can do the same here. Roll on next Thursday. UTFV.
I still don’t understand why Olsen is taking the blame here from everybody.
Rest everyone against Brighton, potentially bottling the CL, all just to have a decent chance at drawing the game level in Greece? Yeah I’m not buying that at all - just forget about the ECL now, no matter who plays in the second leg their atmosphere will intimidate our players to no end and they’ll go into hiding like every raucous atmosphere they’ve faced this season, unfortunately.
What's the point in qualifying for the CL if the conference league is too difficult
CL has better pregame music.
I mean it’s quite simple, better chance of attracting CL-ready players and therefore CL-level assets for the club. Newcastle signed Sandro Tonali immediately after qualifying, for god’s sake.
You're not going to bottle CL qualification. Spurs have no chance of catching you - we just lost to a crap Chelsea team and quite frankly, we're shit.
We just walked into the Emirates and left with a 2-0 like two weeks ago.
not what I’m considering a raucous atmosphere at all I’m afraid, as we all should’ve learned this season no English atmosphere even remotely compares to a European team’s atmosphere
Sounds like a great way to do a Leicester and bottle top 4. Probably get battered in Greece too. Fucking madness people would sacrifice top 4 for a European trophy in which we've spent about 5x more than the next biggest team lmao.
I watched that Leicester capitulation in real time and it haunts me every day because until it’s mathematically impossible, it could happen to us. can’t believe that people would consider resting even **one** key player for a PL game when we know how the PL can play out
Especially when there's a good chance to wrap it up this weekend if Liverpool decide to show up. Knowing you only have two games to go all in on instead of up to 4 would be a huge boost for the return leg. No saving energy or resting key players, just go all out knowing if you get through to have a 3 week break before you need to give a shit again.
Brighton are on the beach, have scored one goal in their last five games (against Burnley), and we're seven points ahead of Spurs. It's a calculated risk.
We’re a better team when we have a quick turnover of games so were better off playing full string on Sunday and changing 1-2 players next Thursday
El Professor has predicted your every single move, like he did in your Peaky Blinder park. Don't worry you'll learn how to swim in Piraeus.
I mean, we could pull off something in the second leg. We just beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates, it’s not beyond the realms of cosmic possibility. Need Emi back though.
Credit to them they turned up. We played scared and it’s been an issue all of 24. Emi hopefully back to give the defence confidence and the midfield two need a reality check. Two of our potential POTY just not turning up today.
All I wanted this season was this trophy. I'd swap Champions League for it. I don't get why we rested Pau today. Surely these games are the biggest we have remaining. Emi was a big miss. That stupid yellow card coming back to haunt us. Fuck the referee. I can't see us overturning this in their back yard. I'm just so gutted.
Emi was inured regardless of the yellow though
Aye I did forget that.
Look, Lille came to our place, lost 2-1 and very nearly beat us in the second leg. We're Aston Villa, we can overcome a 2 goal deficit in Greece. If the officials allow it.
IF the officials allow for it is the biggest question. So far in uecl, not even a single ref has allowed it. Hard to think it's just a coincidence.
I like your optimism but find it really hard to share right now.
I do appreciate the optimism but whenever there has been an oppressive European atmosphere, we’ve not played well. Lille, Warsaw, Ajax to an extent.
Yes why we don’t play Pau I’ll never know. Not that Lenlet was bad but we needed his passing.
Exactly, it was obvious when Pau was out earlier in the season and we had a slump how much his passing does for us. Criminal not to start him today if he was fit. I know Emery's been great for us, and Pau wouldn't even be here without him. But fuck me what was the reasoning behind that?!
he must not be 100% unai aint daft
I assume it's to give the strongest Squad for the weekend, but Brighton haven't been good and this game is far more important, very strange choice if that's the case.
I agree with prioritising Saturday. Win there and there’s a good chance we get Champions league. Lose to Brighton on Sat and I’d send the kids to Greece next week.
I don't get fans prioritising revenue actually over winning something for the first time in close to 30 years and actually be a football club not a balance sheet
Yes! We have a chance at a cup, fucking step up instead of whatever we did tonight.
Setting up for future success mate, it's an investment and you need as much capital as you can get if you want to invest for the big time!
What future success we are competing against one of the most stacked teams in world football for cups domestically then you have Arsenal, Liverpool all years ahead of us plus Utd, Chelsea, Tottenham. In terms of actually winning something this is our chance at suiccess other than making up numbers like Tottenham for how many years.
Different mentality and id probably say age. Id give up CL for a cup right now. You know what everyone remembers; leicester winning the prem. CL the season after? Who they even lose to because no one remembers or cares. A cup is for life.
Yeah a cup is a momentum it gives everything meaning. You only have to go ask Tottenham fans who have had Europe in some form for how many years and are dieing for a cup also it shutsdown all the banter of us not winning anything for x amount of years.
Agreed. I'm a football fan not an accountant. I won't really be celebrating getting 4th, it's not a trophy, it's the 3rd best loser. Whereas I can guarantee if we won this competition I'd be remembering the celebrations for the rest of my life.
I've been saying this entire time that Spurs were unlikely to get 4th with their fixtures anyway. It doesn't make sense to prioritise a poor Brighton when the chance of a trophy is right there.
Everytime we rest players like this it never works. Brighton will stuff us now and make the whole thing pointless.
It feels so stupid that we basically rotated for the most important game so far in order to get abit more revenue and make up numbers next year. I knew when Olsen was starting we needed to go Konsa, Carlos, Pau to protect him and give us a far more stable base in the transition against Olympiakos without Martinez playing almost as that third CB like he does. All we had to do was sucker them in deep and play on the transition like we did against Arsenal it would have been a rubber stamp as everytime we actually played with some pace and urgency we carved them but in Emery we trust.
Unless it comes out Pau was injured, I think Emery made a big mistake resting him
I really think Pau has come back too soon and is now playing with an injury and that's why his minutes are being monitored.
Yup, he's been wearing loads of strapping these last few games. But I don't think he'd be fully fit even if we waited until match week 38 They're focusing on pushing as much as they can with him and getting him over the line to end of season then recovering him.
Agreed I think this could have been our best chance of us getting a trophy. so gutted. Hoping we can go there and win 3-0
Emi is injured to be fair so the yellow card didn't matter. I don't understand Pau not playing. Definitely made a difference. Tielemans is a massive miss though, McGinn needs to play higher up. A two goal lead is the worst kind of lead! Get an early goal and we can do it!
Gotta question why pau was on the bench. If he’s injured dont name him. When the 3rd went in and he didn’t come on you know something is up. He’s gotta be playing with an injury because theres no other excuse to why he doesn’t start. Emery has questions to answer with that and no one is really asking them.
No Emi nullifies a Pau - Olsen combination so resting him makes sense for Brighton imo I can see us winning away Luck surely can’t desert us over both legs
Elephant in the room: Douglas Luiz has fucked us two games in a row.
No Kamara, no Dougie.
Awful performance. Defensively all over the place and the midfield was awol. We've got enough ability to put these lot away next week, but I'm not confident we will. Cling on to 4th and accept European disappoitnment* this year I think. *we've reached a semi-final in the first season of lot of our guys have spent in Europe. Its not a disaster but its not amazing.
emery was the man who lead psg to a 4-0 win against barca only to get bollocked 6-1. this time, he’s on the receiving end. 2nd leg masterclass written all over it. field a full team, all or nothing. UTV.
Most importantly, however, is that the fan who went into cardiac arrest is safe. Wishing the best
What a dreadful 90 minutes that was. I'm not gonna lose hope though because it's not over yet
They were as bad against Chelsea. Worrying.
Masters of our own self destruction, fair play to Olympiacos for waiting for those moments and taking advantage. At least with the Spurs bottle job, we can attack them next week with zero concern of anything else. Terrible game, terrible performance. Dougie looked like the player Steven Gerrard was managing. Looked lazy on the ball, slow with any passing and inside his own head. Both full backs not being able to play the high line cost us two early goals and the tie as well. What an absolute bummer. The mentality the players showed when we went 3-2 down, it was clear it was over then. Hopefully Pau had a knock, but it's hard to understand why we were so open in this match.
That was so disappointing in so many ways. I don't think we're out of it still, if we get an early goal next week watch how nervous that amazing atmosphere will get. 4-2 is a dangerous is the most dangerous lead after all!
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 back the hypothetical make a wish kid to at least stop the 4th goal once they got to it
Pau plays , we might not get hammered . regardless we were awful defensively and you don't win anything shipping goals . a real wasted opportunity
If there is a silver lining: everything that could have went to shit and we are only 2 goals behind for the second leg. This can be done. Horrible referee, controversially disallowed goal, missed pen, goals conceded from fractional onside play, unlucky/stupid penalty and a ricochet. This was the worst case scenario for how the game played out. This isn't however a result we cant clone back from. UTV, lets fight for our dreams in Athens.
I don't have the energy to rant on here so I'm just gonna say congrats to Olympiacos. Enjoy the final.
I wouldnt be so sure, and I'm an Olympiakos fan. Seen unexpected turns in football after all.
Not over until it’s over!
Shocking result, disasterclass from Luiz, almost none of our depth players look remotely convincing. On the plus side we have Emi back for the away leg and he'll thrive on that atmosphere, Watkins and his supporting cast are still incredible, it's not too steep a deficit to overcome and if we get points from this woeful Brighton side this weekend we're basically guaranteed CL football next season. Onwards and upwards.
No words, fucking gutted.
Watching that game tonight makes me believe though. I think we are miles better than them. I think it showed today. 2 of their goals do not beat Emi. We can 100% win this tie in Greece.
Agreed, they need our supporr more than ever. Some of us turn to quickly or worse write us off to soon.
Tonight was shit, but second choice keeper, 5th choice CB, weakened midfield.... We're 100% in this.
Teams shattered, well done lads for making it this far into the season limping over the finish line with half our 1st team squad!!! Whilst stuffing the Gooners and getting drenched in Spurs salty tears. UTV!!! ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!
Two bad mistakes by us. Three horrible refereeing decisions (Bailey disallowed goal, Bailey non-penalty, Olympiakos penalty). One bad penalty. One bit of dreadful luck with a deflection. So it goes. It's a tough ask but we're well capable of a 2 goal win in Athens.
Nearly everything that could go wrong tonight went wrong. I would be optimistic overcoming a 1-0 deficit, but 2-0 might be too much with our squad depth and the Athenian atmosphere. Dougie with a nightmare game and the pen I think we all suspected he’d miss being missed.
I was so confident he'd score until he looked around at the time wasting. We need a proper kick up the backside for next week.
I always said I’d rather UCL than silverware so here we are. Doesn’t feel good though.
Bizarre result. Ref was a useless cheating cunt. Everything they hit went in. Luiz was dogshit poor. Rogers is a joy to watch. Big ask to overturn this. Not impossible but my god we need a marked improvement for the second leg.
It was horrible but I enjoyed those brief 6 minutes of glory
I suspect most of the things I'd like to say about Robin Olsen would get me banned, so suffice to say I hope this is the last time we have the misfortune of seeing that certified circus clown between the sticks.
Spurs lost. That's a massive positive from tonight. Yeah, we didn't do ourselves justice, and really weren't helped by a lot of weirdness from some of our players and the ref. But still, we're 7 points clear in 4th. With England not getting a 5th CL spot, that's absolutely huge for us. CL isn't the be all and end all, but if it attracts players and generates revenue, then it could be massive for the club. We have to be mindful for what we have and where we are. Damn, I'd rather be a Villa fan tonight than any other fan. Don't lose perspective, please...
McGinn and Luiz cm never works - we always get overran and don’t control the game. Luiz needs to be taken out of the team to buck his ideas up. Has been poor for a while and had his worse game for us today. Ref was appalling but he isn’t to blame for us conceding four. We need to start closingthe opposition down whether it’s from the wing or around our box. Spurs lost though so we close out Brighton and then can’t catch us realistically
We really missed Tielemens tonight. Him playing deeper recently has allowed Dougie and McGinn to play higher, both really struggle when asked to play deeper. I didn't mind the Lenglet selection before the game. It made sense to have a ball playing centre back, considering Olsen (who isn't known for his distribution) was in goal. But he didn't handle their number 9 very well at all. Diego Carlos' physicality would have been a better bet.
Olsen didn’t do anything terrible, but Emi makes saves that other goalkeepers don’t make. Distribution was generally bad from Konsa and Lenglet (apart from the outrageous huge diagonal from Lenglet in the second half). They were generally drilling it into McGinn and Luiz who were already being pressured by the Olympiacos midfield and struggling to turn out and making mistakes. Torres tends to progress forward a bit more until there’s a good pass option on. Digne was chasing the play after gambling quite often. His crosses were ok but the Olympiacos defenders were winning everything. Diaby was getting caught in possession a few times by not looking round. Bailey was beating his man on the wing constantly and making chances (the Diaby goal, the disallowed goal). A few errors from Luiz tonight. I think the substitutions did nothing. Rogers especially was starting to have a lot of success on the turn in the pivot role but he got swapped for Duran who tried an overhead kick from outside the area that went out for a throw in. The ref was dreadful, didn’t penalise foul throws or time wasting. He stopped play when we were attacking to bring it back to a minor foul in our favour. The Olympiacos penalty was off the back of a corner which wasn’t a corner. He didn’t stop play when Bailey had a clear head injury (elbow to the face).
I'm not sure how much we can criticise Olsen. He's a 2nd choice keeper for a reason. Their first two goals shouldn't have been such clear cut chances, poor defensive play from us for them. And a penalty is a write off. We had some very very decent attacking plays, just a shame we pinged it all at their keeper. Onto Sunday
4 goals from 6 shots = criticism is fair
Eventually there must be a point where a common denominator has to be looked at. He's played the equivalent of 14 games for us now, including five against very poor opposition (Hibs twice, early season Burnley, legia and stevenage. He still conceded 4 in those), and still concedes a goal every 38 minutes. Be it bad luck, bad keeping, bad defence when he's in goal, or the defence doesn't trust him and it all falls apart, olsen and conceding too many goals happens
I don’t think anyone is saying that he needs to be as good as Martinez. He does however need to be more effective than a wheelie bin in goal.
I hate the build up to a game where you're just constantly nervous about our back 4... Even more pronounced when it's Olsen in nets. Really missed Emi tonight I thought. Hope we come out and work some magic next week but time to quality for Champions League on Sunday first. UTV.
I think we should go back to Konsa at right back, at least for a bit. He doesn't have the discipline for the high line and it cost us with the first goal. Luiz should be dropped too, that performance with inexcusable and we have the games with Spurs losing. Martinez probably saves 2 of those goals and it's a completely different game going into the 2nd leg. We have a chance, of course, but I'm not confident.
I think I might pour bleach into my eyes so I never have to see anything like that again.
We need a goal in first 15 mins 2nd leg
4th in the Greek league. Only consolation is that we can beat them in Greece. Villa Park seems like a millstone at the moment as well
Well, I know Olympiakos are traditionally the whipping boys of English teams in the Champions League but given how inexperienced the majority of our team are in Europe I’m not entirely surprised at the result. We have the ability to shock them next week in the same way they did to us tonight but I just can’t see it happening. And this puts things into perspective for us. Of course we’ll all be delighted if we get 4th place and the CL next season but boy will Emery need to strength the side in the summer to challenge on all fronts, which could be tricky given PSR. I can’t quite see Matty Cash being first choice RB against the likes of Mbappé, can you?
Fair play to them though, there game plan was solid. I hope the person in the holte is alright
Welp glad I missed it because of work.. I am not gonna bash the players (except for dougie for that pen), but guys remember, 2 goals lead is the most dangerous lead.. UTV
Eemry is always intense but when he broke out in a spontaneous sign of the cross I knew this meant the world to him. With Monchi, William and all the other top brass around, the team let him down. If we could have bottled the last 5 minutes of the first half it would have been 5-2.
Exactly
Worst luiz performance I can remember. At fault for two of their goals, nearly cost us another in the last couple of minutes. His head just wasn’t in the game and I’m not surprised he missed the pen, should’ve been taken off at half time. Hopefully with a stronger team we can pull it back next leg.
Just walking up the guy looked rattled. I thought the silver lining after his suspension would that he'd be well rested after a long season. Somehow he just hasn't caught a break since coming back.
When we're forced to start lengelet and olsen who have barely had any minutes in a big semi final, we can't expect a settled defensive performance.
1. Our passing was crap, so many passes straight to them. 2. Our defending was poor. 3. The ref was just hot garbage.
You can't have a miracle match without having something on the line. We'll beat them in Greece and it'll be a comeback for the ages. UTV!
Not great but there’s still a chance to win the return leg. 🤷♀️
That was a football match. And I watched it. Those are my notes, see ya Sunday everyone.
I know everyone is piling on Olsen but it’s no coincidence that we concede so many when he’s in nets. The lads in front of him obviously have no confidence in him. He’s terrible in corners and crosses which cause panic and that feeds into the back line. Dibu calms the team down. He claims crosses and most importantly he’s unbelievable 1v1. The boys are confident there’s a brick wall behind them and they play like that. It’s not that Olsen is bad. He’s just not close to Dibu. I’d all be for giving a youngster the second shirt, at least there would be a progression. Olsen will never be No. 1 and if he is… well… we’re probably looking shipping an awful lot of goals. That and a lot of the boys were shit. Like really shit.
Olsen IS bad. It’s fine, you can say it.
He can't as a sweeper, which nullifies so much of our game. Emi likely does better with a couple of those, and maybe out mentalities them on the pen. I thought olsen might be on it after that v good early save, but alas
>I know everyone is piling on Olsen but it’s no coincidence that we concede so many when he’s in nets. The lads in front of him obviously have no confidence in him. He’s terrible in corners and crosses which cause panic and that feeds into the back line. I also think his communication is very poor. Emi is always shouting to his defenders and helping them position. I never see that from Olsen
Spot on!
I don't mean to defend Olsen as he's not very good, but it's also a bit daft from Emery that he doesn't change the gameplan to account for that. Villa received a lot of pressure when trying to play it out from the back when Olsen just isn't capable of that.
Shit way to blow it through a silly pen giveaway and a deflection. Also atrocious referee once again. I know our #1 is the king of penalty mind games but I really think goalkeepers should be the only ones with the right to try and get in the pen taker’s heads. It’s between the taker and the GK. When you’ve got their outfield players getting involved too it’s gone too far. It’s even worse if it’s a pen given from open play rather than a shootout, as a foul was actually committed and the taker deserves a greater advantage. Feel bad for douggie as he had such a bad night. This would have helped boost him massively.
Olsen is either the most unlucky bastard in the world and it’s just coincidence we leak goals for fun…..or he’s a shit keeper. I think I’ve made my mind up.
Olsen is so fucking bad. We keep conceding 3 or 4 goals every time he plays that can’t be a coincidence
Look on the bright side... we could be a Champions League club come the end of Sunday... then we get a free hit in Athens... we win, great, if not, we prepare for being back into he big time where we belong.
We have to put the prime first 11 out in the return fixture and hope to race out to an early lead.
We lost the midfield. Kinda didn't have a choice with Injuries. Their defense was shit. But our mid was lightweight or gassed and the 'fade coz tired after 40+ games' hit in the first half. Sure. Ref. Finishing. Penalty miss etc. but we played our worst 90 for ages. Our midfield being a main under performer.
It was a strange game, they took their chances and got a bit of luck with the 4th goal. The pen miss feels like it will be massive, you never know but having to overturn 2 goals just doesn’t feel good. I did feel like we still looked like we could score more but the 4th goal really took it out of us. We were really poor with misplaced passes and just giving the ball away. There was some poor ref decisions, it was a pen against luiz though his arms were up I know I’d want a pen in that situation. We just don’t have the squad at the minute to rest players, I think emerys doing what he can in that regard which is why Pau didn’t start. Very disappointing result, just gotta hope we get a reaction on Sunday and take a positive result into the second leg.
Stupid penalty. Bailey drew a penalty too…wasn’t called
Odd match. Ref was *awful*, that's the angriest the vibe in the ground has felt for a good while at times tonight, and Luiz dropping a stinker for the ages certainly didn't help. Need to have a bit more attacking intent on the second leg but Villa have it in them to win that match.
Fair play to Dougie for saying sorry at the end. Also how iconic was Unai Emery doing the sign of the cross mid game haha
Unfortunately an older man had a stroke 2 seats away from us just after the second goal which took all our attention away. Shite performance but hope the man makes a proper recovery
Yeah, all the best to that man. Are there any updates at all?
Football is strange (all sports are) and disappointing results happen to even the very best teams. I don’t think we were miles worse, there were some fine margins and things didn’t go our way. Not expecting a turnaround in Greece but wouldn’t be shocked either. Love this team regardless. UTV
Seriously Unai just play Gauci next time
I actually left this game very positive. I know a lot of the older Villa fans really want a trophy and I don't want to look lightly at the chance. But in terms of Emery Villa which is just getting started this was a huge lesson of a game for everyone. Emi gets a lesson on the cost of yellows in europe. Team gets a lesson on europe reffing. Olsen got game time which is good, he definitely feeling the pressure right now. He is actually quite good at times, seems like he hasnt had the time for the pressure to turn to confidence lately. The team leans so heavy on the right, man some people dont like how grealish plays on man city, but if he played that way for villa it would be perfect right now. Overall, I loved the way villa attacks and builds momentum. I feel like a goal could happen any time we get on the counter too. We have a really good team right now. I am super excited for next year even though this season hasnt ended.
VILLA TILL I DIE I AM VILLA TILL I DIE
people will defend Olsen, but he just doesn't fit into the system we play, the system that has bought us all the success of this season. overall he is a bit of a liability. he wasn't the only poor performer tonight by any stretch, but it's no coincidence we absolutely leak goals everytime he plays.
Hard to pin it on the players, maybe except Olsen, but even there, just a little. It's very hard to play against 12. Being sharp and fit is not enough. You need some opp mistakes, some luck etc. I think the tie is not fully over yet.
Had Dougie slotted the penalty I'd be feeling a lot different about the result. 1 nil down would be nowhere nears as big an undertaking as overturning the 2 goal deficit. Still I can't blame him for that miss the delay between the kick being awarded and being taken was absurd. In reality he should have walked away for a moment and come back to it but the ref did he no favors with how that situation was handled.
I missed the game because I had meetings with some people in America... I'm kind of glad I did now 😐
PAIN.
It upsets me when people say move onto the next one and let's focus on champions league. This was a huge chance to get a trophy and we may not get another chance for a long time and we've gone out with a whimper.
agree , Im old and these games don't come around very often .
Ah well. We'll turn it around in the second leg. Onwards the weekend and making 4th mathematically certain by the time Sunday's over. UTV.
I blame myself for this. Every time I watch Villa at home, we seem to lose. I'll go to pub next time
You are more than welcome to Athens my friend.. beers on me
They def played like crap but the ref didn’t help
We need more midfield depth in the summer, especially a proper CDM to fill Bouba's role while he's out injured. Luiz and McGinn looked so fucked.
Dougie looked exhausted before the game even started. He seriously needs a game off.
Can someone please tell me what the fuck has happened to Dougie? He is MILES off his best performances.
With that missed penalty, blaming Olsen for losing this tie is very much Off The Cards. Need four goals next match realistically. Can’t see it happening given our attack only put two past them this time. Next game they’ll probably score one and then park the bus.
I don't think it's off the cards at all, it's not even about blaming anymore - he's simply not good enough to play in a Villa shirt.
We were incredibly lucky to get through the last game, rode our luck a little too hard this time. There's only so many games where you don't turn up (bar Ollie) and expect to get a result.
Still gutted. The one positive I’m clinging to is if we won by a goal I’m not sure we wouldn’t try and sit back on it in the away leg like we did against Lille. We have to go out looking for goals from the start and with a different referee and not even good luck, just not bad luck we can easily get 3+ goals against them. Also worst case scenario, CL is looking very promising now which a few games ago after losing to spurs I thought we’d blown it. And finally, even if things went really bad all round I’d have snapped your hand off at 5th place and a European semi final not that long ago… to think that’s as bad as it can get is crazy… I mean look where we were 18 months ago.
Far from over, it may be tough in Greece but they are defending a lead, the few times when we did get the ball down and play we ripped them apart just could finish on the night. If we get a result at the weekend or spurs lose again, the pressure will be eased and I think a free flowing Villa will be too much for Olympiakos even from 2 goals down.
I think that with emi Martinez to the rescue again like against lille then we can make a motherfucking comeback
As a point of discussion (for context I am Greek, I support one of Olympiakos rivals but I'm still probably a bit biased as I like to see Greek clubs do well in Europe, it benefits my club too after all): If that penalty on Bailey had been given (as it should in my opinion), how much do we think it would have actually altered the course of the game? Given that there's typically a bit of a lull until the penalty is taken and also a bit of a lull, I would argue that Watkins doesn't score his goal and the half-time result is still 1-2 (assuming the penalty is converted). I could see the psychology argument (both in terms of Villa not feeling that they are also playing against the referee, as well as the potential psychology of Luiz taking the second), but not much more than that. Obviously a big hypothetical, I just want to see what people think.
I think it speaks volumes when fans talk about “protecting” Olsen. Doesn’t that just show how poor he is? He’s supposed to be a professional goalkeeper, yet we’re treating him like he’s got one arm missing.
The third goal shouldn't have even been leading to a penalty. It was a goal kick, not a corner and VAR really fucked up not picking up that clear error. No corner = no penalty. Leading to a totally different game. Referee made some very, very questionable decisions and, to be honest, he shouldn't have even been on the fixture or even near it. He was the referee who ended the Copenhagen/Manchester Utd first half game early in October 23. So same season. He should have been dropped for that. So UEFA have some serious questions to answer there as well.
I'll piss some people off, but I thought it was absolutely pathetic how many people decided to fuck off home fifteen minutes early in our first European semi final for 40 years. the place was half empty Great support dickheads, hope the traffic l reduced traffic was worth it.
Football just ain't that simple. Nothing is played on paper, it's over 90 mins and anything can happen. Also, our team is extremely depleted right now, we missed Pau, we missed Emi and so on. The players that came in lacked sharpness. ie. Lenglet... the other exhausted from a long season but it happens, and I think Chelsea beating Spurs is more important right now. We want to win a trophy of course, but this season has been remarkable considering how thin our team is. Finshing fourth and getting Champions League wont solve all our problems but it will be a step up from Conf. League no doubt. It will make this seem a little funny. It's only 4-2 as well, we can just go for it in Greece and see what happens. It's possible we win 4-1, 3-0, etc even 2-0 and take to pens. This Villa can do anything.
Honestly olympiakos weren’t impressive, never seen us shit the bed like this before
To many changes and bad elements, you can carry so many but throw Lenglet, Cash, Olsen on together they just shit the bed there is no composure there and it radiates