It's happened before! Aston Villa will need to produce rare European feat to progress
Aston Villa will have to achieve a rare feat in European football if they are to reach the Europa Conference League final.
Only three times in UEFA's current trio of competitions has a team lost a first leg at home by two or more goals and gone on to progress to the next round.
That is the task facing Unai Emery's men after a 4-2 defeat to Olympiacos and here, the PA news agency looks at the few precedents for success - and while Unai Emery himself has previous, the most recent example comes from Villa's semi-final opponents...
Olympiacos v Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Europa Conference League, 2024
Olympiacos looked to be heading out of the competition in March after a 4-1 first-leg hammering by Maccabi Tel-Aviv in their own Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis. Even UEFA's website summary stated "Maccabi take full control of tie," after Eran Zahavi's brace and goals for Ido Shahar and Dor Peretz.
Ayoub El Khabi's goal gave Olympiacos at least something to cling to and the switching of the return leg to Serbia, necessitated by the conflict on the Gaza Strip, negated Maccabi's home advantage.
