Olympiakos vs Aston Villa - Match preview

For all the rallying cries which emerged from Villa’s dressing room after last week’s 4-2 defeat, promises to fight until the end, the truth is comebacks from two-goal first leg deficits are rare. When the trailing team is away in the second leg, they are scarcer still.

Only once, for example, has it been achieved in the Europa League but that single case, from Villa’s perspective, provokes optimism.

A decade ago Sevilla lost 2-0 at home to city rivals Real Betis in a last-16 tie but came back to win the second leg by the same scoreline and go through on penalties. Sevilla’s manager that night? Unai Emery, of course.

Throw in the fact Olympiacos themselves pulled off one of the biggest fightbacks in the history of European competition less than two months ago, after losing the first leg 4-1 at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv and you can understand why many observers, despite the statistics, suspect this Europa Conference League semi-final tie is far from over.

“Experiences can always help, being successful or not. But we have to create and build a new way and we lost the first leg clearly,” said Emery in Greece last night.

“Tomorrow will be difficult to come back but we must play tomorrow thinking to stand after the first 90 minutes, the game plan we had didn’t work well but tomorrow I expect to do better.

“It’s going to be very difficult here with the atmosphere. It could be more difficult with the supporters pushing a lot but focusing like we can with my experience before and building a new experience here with our players and idea and our experiences this year.

“This is the challenge tomorrow, the biggest challenge we are going to face this year, playing in this semi-final.”

Concern for Villa can be found in some rather average away form through the competition.

Take out the 5-0 qualifying round cruise at Hibernian and Emery’s team have won just one of five matches on their travels, albeit in emphatic fashion 4-1 at AZ Alkmaar.

Otherwise there was a 3-2 defeat at Legia Warsaw, in an atmosphere similar to the one they will face tonight, a 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar, admittedly with a changed starting XI, along with an uninspiring 0-0 at Ajax and last month’s 2-1 defeat in Lille when they were a whisker away from going out before Matty Cash’s late goal levelled the tie on aggregate.

Emery views the latter as an example of his team’s strong mentality and said he had spoken to his team about the other occasions this season they have bounced back from adversity.

“We are speaking about our experiences and how we reacted to losing some matches,” he said. “Even in Premier League or even how we reacted to going out of the Carabao Cup or FA Cup, or even how we reacted in the Conference League playing some matches.

“I am trying to prepare the match with them to try to help them with my expectation about how we can react tomorrow, with the result and emotions. It’s a good moment to see how we can react, how we can focus on our game plan and how we can progressively do good things and the things we need to do and with the respect we have of them.”

Perhaps the biggest question which surrounds Villa is whether, after a gruelling season which has already see them play 53 matches and cope with chronic injury troubles, they have the energy for the kind of big performance.

Brazil international Douglas Luiz, who has played 54 times for club and country, admitted it has not been easy in recent weeks but added: “It’s a semi-final and a chance for a final and that gives us extra motivation.

“It’s a plus for us and we need to keep fighting. I’m also grateful to Villa for giving me the chance to play in the Premier League and every time I get on the pitch I want to show how grateful I am.

“Tomorrow is a really special game and I want to do my best to get them to the final.

“We believe we can win this game and go through.”