The Europa Conference League reaches the semi-final stage as Aston Villa plays host to Olympiakos.
The Semi Finals
With Aston Villa taking a huge step towards next season’s Champions League, they will want to end this season with European success.
Success And Silverware
Although there is something to be said for games in hand, you cannot put a price on getting points on the board at this stage of the season. Aston Villa may have played two more Premier League games than Tottenham, but they are seven points clear in the race for fourth.
A race that will hand out the last of UEFA’s Champions League invites to the Premier League and although Aston Villa are not mathematically secure of joining the quartet of English representation just yet, an easier run-in certainly puts them in the driving seat to finish fourth.
While because of the gap that Unai Emery’s men have over their North London counterparts, it will allow the West Midlands outfit to give it both barrels in the two-legged Europa Conference League semi-final clash with Olympiakos.
The first of those legs takes place on Thursday at Villa Park and it was the same venue where the Birmingham-based outfit threw away a two-goal lead against Chelsea. Not only did they throw away such an advantage, but they were also very fortunate to end up in a state of stalemate.
Axel Disasi peeled away thinking he has completed Chelsea’s dramatic turnaround, but VAR had other ideas and with Blues teammate Benoît Badiashile being adjudged to have shoved Diego Carlos, Villa’s blushes were spared.
It may have felt like two points dropped at the time, but it ended up being a point gained in the wider context of the Premier League and with Tottenham getting nothing from the latest edition of the North London derby, there was a sense of delayed celebration within the Villa camp.
Now that same camp will want to give their legion of supporters something to cheer about on Thursday and with Greek giants Olympiakos playing the role of semi-final opponents, this tie will be far from a foregone conclusion.
A status you can also say about this season’s Greek Super League title race and although it is not necessarily a point for conversation down your local, it does see Olympiakos in a three-horse race to be crowned the nations football gods at the end of the season.
The team that is situated in the port of Piraeus currently finds themselves three points behind leaders AEK Athens but with a game in hand still to play. Get that out of the way and two rounds of the season remain as these two outfits and Panathinaikos aim to finish the title race in first.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and although Villa’s home fortress has shown a couple of chinks in its armour recently, I think it will be strong enough to withhold Olympiakos – albeit at the cost of a clean sheet. A home win and both teams to score is priced at 21/10.
In addition to this, I am going to opt for Villa truly putting themselves in pole position before the return leg and the best way to do that is by winning by a two-goal margin. With this in mind, I am also backing a 3-1 home win at odds of 11/1.
Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets
