Aston Villa are preparing for their biggest game of the season so far.
In truth, every game at this stage of the season is huge, as Unai Emery attempts to steer his Villa side to both a Champions League spot and a Europa Conference League trophy.
The first of those targets is tantalisingly close to being achieved, with Villa needing just one win from their final two Premier League games to secure a spot in Europe’s elite club competition next season.
The latter is more challenging, though, as Villa suffered a shock 4-2 home defeat to Olympiacos in the first leg of their semi-final.
Now, Villa are in Greece readying themselves for a second leg in which they know they will have to be almost perfect to overturn the two-goal deficit and progress to their first European final in 42 years.
Olympiacos are not taking anything for granted despite their advantage and the fact they are at home, with manager José Luis Mendilibar has explaining why.
Olympiacos manager cites Unai Emery as reason tie is not over
Mendilibar has done a good job at the Greek club in his first managerial role outside of Spain.
The 63-year-old only took charge of Olympiacos in February, but has overseen the club climbing the table alongside their European exploits.
Mendilibar is no stranger to Emery, with the pair having faced each other 14 times over the course of their careers.
Villa’s manager has the better of his opponent, winning seven of these, drawing two and losing five.
Crucially, though, the last of Mendilibar’s five wins was in the first leg.
Despite a favourable result, the experienced Spanish manager knows the tie is far from done.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Mendilibar spoke on Emery, saying: “The fact he emphasises a lot on details is key. He tried to take into account all details.”
The Olympiacos manager then revealed why the tie is all but a foregone conclusion, saying: “What I truly know about Emery is he 100 per cent believes he can knock us out. He truly wants that and that is a great weapon.
“Currently Emery believes he can knock us out. He believes he can get to the final, truly he will believe that. That is the weapon they have.”
Can Emery plot Olympiacos comeback?
Whilst it will undoubtedly be difficult to come back from two goals down, particularly in front of Olympiacos’ home fans, it is possible.
Emery and Villa should take confidence from the fact they have already levelled proceedings from being two goals behind once in the tie, as they went two goals down before levelling through goals from Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby at Villa Park last week.
At that point it looked like there was only one winner, but the concession of a soft penalty by Douglas Luiz turned the tie back in the Greek sides favour before they added a fourth via a deflection off of Ezri Konsa.
A late penalty miss from Luiz made the second-leg more difficult than it might have been, but Villa have scored two or goals on 17 occasions this season.
They have talent in abundance and if they are at their best there is no reason why they cannot return to Greece for the final in Athens on May 29th.
