In early March, Olympiacos lost 4-1 at home to Robbie Keane’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, in the last 16 of the Europa Conference League. Defeated, humiliated, their continental dream looked over for yet another year.
Four months previously, they’d been unceremoniously booted out of the Europa League, with one group game to spare, after a 5-0 loss to Freiburg. This European campaign had not gone well.
Now, they have a European trophy – the first European trophy in the history of Greek football – after one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent memory. In the 20th anniversary year of Greece’s Euro 2004 triumph, this was another unlikely Greek victory, another story that will be told for generations.
The Europa Conference League has consistently delivered stories like that, since its introduction in 2021. Back then, many turned their nose up at the return of a third European competition. Mickey Mouse, they said.
But the competition was designed to give hope to more clubs and countries than ever before. It’s undoubtedly delivered.
Last year, West Ham United produced one of the most memorable moments in their history, defeating Fiorentina in Prague to win the Conference League, their first European trophy for 58 years. No Hammers fan will ever forget it. This year, it was Olympiacos, poetically winning it in Athens, in the home stadium of their rivals AEK. They’ll laud that victory for decades.
It’s not just been about the winners, either. Far from it. Over its first three seasons, the competition has offered group-stage football to clubs from nations right across the continent, nations that weren’t previously afforded that luxury.
This season, there was the story of KI Klaksvik, who became the first Faroese club ever to make a group stage of European competition. From a tiny fishing town, it thrilled the local community.
Iceland, Kosovo and Bosnia also had clubs in the group stage, where once they wouldn’t have had that opportunity. Last season it was Latvia, Lithuania and Liechtenstein. The year before that it was Estonia and Gibraltar.
Scotland have had Hearts and Aberdeen involved – previously, no club apart from Celtic and Rangers had reached the group stage of a European competition since 2007.
This season, Olympiacos’ story turned in the tiny Serbian city of Backa Topola, on March 14, in front of a crowd of just 370. It was there that Maccabi Tel Aviv played the ‘home’ leg of their last 16 tie, unable to stage games in Israel because of the war.
Having lost 4-1 in Piraeus, Olympiacos remarkably won the second leg 6-1, helped by Stevan Jovetic’s first goal in European competition for a remarkable 14 years. His previous strike had come in 2010 for Fiorentina, the side he’d ultimately face in the final.
Keane’s Maccabi Tel Aviv dispatched, Olympiacos marched on to a quarter-final… against Fenerbahce. Greece versus Turkey, two fierce rivals, it was a mouthwatering tie. Olympiacos led 3-0 on aggregate, then chucked away that lead, before triumphing on penalties, in Istanbul, in front of the most hostile crowd you could possibly imagine. Already, they were making memories they’d never forget.
Massive underdogs in the semi-final against Aston Villa, they remarkably won 4-2 in Birmingham, aided by VAR, who showed that Ayoub El Kaabi had somehow stayed onside by a hair’s breadth for a dramatic first-half goal, which had initially been ruled out. To the naked eye, it had looked certain he was offside. From that moment, Villa were always chasing the tie, unsuccessfully as it proved.
Then came the final against Fiorentina in Athens, which felt like a home game. El Kaabi’s 116th-minute goal won it, sparking delirium in the stands. Despite a captain called Kostas Fortounis, the Greek side didn’t spend millions to achieve glory – their most expensive player was actually just £4m.
It was the greatest moment in the history of Olympiacos. Without the introduction of the Europa Conference League, their 5-0 loss at Freiburg in November would have been the end of their European journey this season. None of the remarkable events that followed would have happened.
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