2023/24 Conference League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final

[matt]

As soon as Bonucci went to kick the penalty i knew he would miss.

[BurningStorm]

Same bullshit penalty by Fenerbace by two players who missed it

Three. Bonucci was dumb enough to shoot the same way like the other two.

Normaly I would have rooted for Olympiacos, but for me Fenerbahce have better chances against AV. So in both PSO's the wrong team won for me. Congrats tho.

[naaba]

[rpo.castro]

So Olympiacos is the only team from 3 competitions that can play at home: all English teams gone from CL and EL (Dublin is just there) and PAOK also out.
Congrats for the Portuguese players at Oly.

[Jua Ferreira]

I knew we took bad penalties throughout the season, but missing 3 penalties is just shameful. Livakovic and Tzolakis did really well.

[Jua Ferreira]

Aston Villa 65 - 35 Lille, the tie is like early final. No team can resist Aston Villa if they really care. Winner of this tie shall be heavy favourite to win the cup.

Olympiakos 50 - 50 Fenerbahçe balanced tie. Fenerbahçe has bad stats against Greek teams. Panathinaikos in 2002, Paok in 2012 and Olympiakos in 2021 EL Groups, all lost. (Years are approximate here, i do not remember correct dates). Btw this clubs' basketball teams will face in Euroleague too.

V. Plzen 40 - 60 Fiorentina : V. Plzen, unbeaten in Europe, conceded only 3 in 14 games. I can smell another 0-0 agg. here

Club Brugge 45 - 55 PAOK : Both teams have great chance to be in the final with this draw. Especially Club Brugge without domestic title race can focus on the tie. However PAOK semms slight favourite to me given their better results during this year.

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Semi finals as per my expectations
Aston Villa - Olympiakos
Fiorentina - PAOK

Final
Aston Villa - Fiorentina

Winner : Aston Villa

Not bad predictions. Only mispredicted Club Brugge's win.

Edit : Also, Aston Villa's form in the tie were below my expectations.

[rrey1]

So, Greece still has a chance for #15.
Olympiakos needs to win all 3 remaining games outright (7 points).
England still hangs in (barely) for the 5th CL spot.
Aston Villa needs to gain 5 points more than the trio of Bundesliga teams.

[Sillu1991]

In Europe French teams often suffer heartbreaking eliminations even when they dominate.

With french teams its easy. As long they dont go to PK shootout everything is fine. They just dont win in penalty shootout... Basically never.

Here we go again, only two hours after.
Third home team elimination after pk in two nights?

Almost... Amazingly Marseille survived... To me its very painful to watch those pk kicks because 80-90% french clubs go out on that way.

[bugylibicska]

Why Emiliano Martinez was not sent off despite second yellow card

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/soccer ... d6c7e&ei=5

[Firnen]

Olympiacos wrote history today, first Semi-Final in the history of the club!

Mendilibar improved the team with his subs while the Turkish coach subbed out his good players for Zajc, Krunic, Soyuncu and Under for some reason. Olympiacos missed a huge chance with a double header by Iborra (at the post after Livakovic saved) and Carmo (a defender on the line saved) but both teams were wary of each other and tired.

In the penalties, 21 year old academy GK Tzolakis who wasn't the starter until 1 month ago (starting by the 1-6 win against Maccabi) earned a spot in the club's history by single-handedly taking Olympiacos to the Semis: he saved 3 penalties, by Tadic, Under and Bonucci and nearly saved Batshuayi's too.

Euphoric night for Olympiacos after a match which wasn't really good by his creative players, but ended with glory!

[emortal]

Just back from Toumba stadium.

Very disappointing game, PAOK made Brugge look like prime Barcelona

I had the feeling that the Belgians won every single duel, especially Vanaken was majestic.

Judging based on what I've seen from Fiorentina this season, Brugge can already book tickets for the final in Athens.

[Juliusz]

Second legs attendances

Lille - Aston Villa 47,093
Fenerbahçe - Olympiacos 44,040
PAOK - Club Brugge 24,738
Fiorentina - Viktoria Plzeň 19,418

[TommyChat]

Club Brugge - Fiorentina 2nd leg will be played on Wednesday before the Real - Bayern semi. There is the cup final in Belgium on Thursday May 9th (Denmark, Sweden and Czechia as well have their finals on 9th due to ascension day I guess).

Edit: Sweden's moved to May 1st and for Czechia I'm not sure if it's in 8th or 9th.

[bugylibicska]

Outright:

Aston Villa 2.10
Fiorentina 2.75
Club Brugge 7.00
Olympiacos 10.00

[seso]

PAOK started playing matches in July and has had since then 10 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats.
Congrats to Oly for their first European SF. I expect a lot of Oly fans at Villa Park.

England and Spain with just one club remaining.

Rooting for Aston Villa in the ECL and for OM in EL!