Congratulations to Olympiakos! Commiserations to Fiorentina, meanwhile, and thanks to you for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Olympiakos line up for their prize. Gold medals are draped around their necks. Then Kostas Fortounis is handed the famous old trophy. Up into the night air it goes, bang go the glitter bombs, and Olympiacos of Piraeus begin their celebrations. It’s going to be a long night in Athens and surrounding areas!
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The trophy presentation. The cup is popped on its plinth. Olympiakos form a guard of honour and thank the officials for their work. Then come the defeated Fiorentina, led by their captain Cristiano Biraghi, and receive their silver medals for the second year in a row.
Some admin ahead of next season. This result means Olympiakos will play in the Europa League next season. It also means Fiorentina will have a chance to make it third time lucky in the Conference League … and puts an end to Torino’s dream of playing in the competition next season. (They'd have crept in as Italy’s ninth team in Europe had Fiorentina won.)
It’s not been a bad year for Ayoub El Kaabi either. The 30-year-old Moroccan had never played in Uefa competition before this campaign; he’s ended it as top scorer with 11 goals including the winner in the final. Now he’s part of the Olympiakos legend for ever.
What a year for Olympiakos boss Jose Luis Mendilibar, who won last season’s Europa League with Sevilla. Tonight’s victory means he becomes only the second manager in history to win a European trophy with different clubs in successive seasons, after Rafael Benítez, who won the Uefa Cup with Valencia in 2004 and the Champions League with Liverpool a year later.
Stevan Jovetić, formerly of Fiorentina but now of Olympiakos, speaks to TNT. “It is amazing … I’m really proud … I think we did great all year … I want to just compliment Fiorentina … two years in a row … shame for them … an amazing team … I wish them all the best.”
It wasn’t a classic. It was far from a classic. But when it came down to it, Olympiakos had Ayoub El Kaabi, and Fiorentina did not. The Moroccan made a cute run before converting Santiago Hezze’s inswinger with a deft header, leaving Fiorentina to rue missing a series of decent chances, none of which were finished with a confident connection. The small margins, and it’s Olympiakos who cavort on the pitch of their city rivals AEK, while the Viola crumple in tears having suffered a fatal blow late in the final for the second year running. Yep, the small margins.
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EXTRA TIME, FULL TIME: Olympiakos 1-0 Fiorentina
Ayoub El Kaabi’s late, late, late goal means Olympiakos become the first Greek club to win a major European title!
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ET 30 min +4: Fiorentina are 60 seconds away from falling at the final hurdle of the Conference League for a second season in a row. Heartbreak ahoy – again - for the Viola. Olympiakos are 60 seconds away from history!
ET 30 min +3: Nobody will be taking anything for granted yet. But the Olympiakos bench take turns to embrace El Kaabi anyway. The fans in the stand giving it plenty as well.
ET 30 min +2: El-Arabi comes on for the goalscorer El Kaabi.
ET 30 min +1: The first of five minutes for Fiorentina to save themselves. Ikone finds some space just inside the Olympiakos box on the right. He opens his body only to see his shot blocked. Fiorentina have had their chances tonight. They’ve not connected properly with a single one.
ET 30 min: A huge roar as the goal stands! Olympiakos are on the brink of becoming the first Greek team to win a major European club competition!
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ET 29 min: Oh man, this is so close. El Kaabi is down on his haunches as he awaits the verdict. Was he marginally off just before he nipped in ahead of Martinez Quarta?
ET 28 min: El Kaabi is booked for whipping his shirt off in celebration. But will the goal stand? There’s a lengthy look by VAR for offside!
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GOAL! Olympiakos 1-0 Fiorentina (El Kaabi 116)
Space and time for Hezze out on the right. Too much space. Too much time. Hezze curls in towards El Kaabi on the left-hand edge of the six-yard box. El Kaabi stoops and guides a header across Terracciano and into the bottom left! El Kaabi’s 11th of the competition and it could be the most precious of all!
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ET 24 min: Dodo heads the free kick clear, bringing that passage of back-and-forth play to an end.
ET 23 min: … a move which ends when Dodo is rather harshly judged to have skittled Jovetic out on the left flank. A chance for the Greek side to load the box. André Horta to take.
ET 22 min: An aimless punt upfield by Fiorentina. Tzolakis comes to the edge of his box to collect, but Quini panics and slices high, backwards and out for a corner. Fortunately for the sub, his keeper deals with the set piece, and Olympiakos counter …
ET 20 min: … and now Ikone does get an effort on target, scuffing a cross from the left towards the bottom right from six yards. Any decent connection and Tzolakis was in all sorts, but the keeper’s able to parry clear.
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ET 19 min: … and to that end, Barak slips Ikone into space just inside the Olympiakos box on the right. Ikone hesitates and the chance to shoot is gone.
ET 17 min: On TNT Sports, pundit James Horncastle suggests that Fiorentina will be the more desirous of getting this settled in extra time, because they’ve missed so many big penalties this season.
Olympiakos get the second period of extra time underway. Fiorentina have made a double change, replacing Cristiano Biraghi and Nicolas Gonzalez with Lucas Beltrán and Luca Ranieri, while Olympiakos have swapped out Daniel Podence for Giorgos Masouras
EXTRA TIME, HALF TIME: Olympiakos 0-0 Fiorentina
The wait for a goal goes on.
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ET 14 min: André Horta spins into a little space down the left before finding El Kaabi in the box. Milenković sticks to El Kaabi’s shoulder, ensuring the striker can’t get a shot away at the expense of a corner. Terracciano plucks the set piece from the sky.
ET 12 min: Nzola probes down the right but can’t find anyone in the middle with his low cross. Meanwhile here’s Antony T on the beaten semi-finalists: “Any Club Brugge fans feeling a little annoyed right now? I know this Villa fan is.”
ET 10 min: Biraghi is booked for a cynical check on Rodinei. The resulting free kick, sent in from the right, is helped over the bar by El Kaabi.
ET 8 min: Thing about that aforementioned penalty claim was, Olympiakos had a decent shout. Jovetic’s cross from the left certainly hit the arm of Martínez Quarta. It was from close range, and Martínez Quarta’s arm wasn’t far from his body … but both distances were ambiguous enough to make a claim. Not clear and obvious, in the final analysis. But Fiorentina might not have had VAR on their side had it been awarded.
ET 6 min: Jovetic cuts across the edge of the Fiorentina D, left to right, before arrowing a low drive towards the bottom right. Terracciano tips around the post and nothing comes of the resulting corner.
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ET 4 min: Jovetic is booked for claiming for a penalty in an overly enthusiastic manner. Podence then nearly talks himself into a second yellow. Finally the substitute keeper Paschalakis is booked for having his say from the bench.
ET 3 min: El Kaabi chases a speculative ball down the right but can’t do anything with it.
ET 2 min: Fiorentina start extra time on the front foot. The Greek side yet to get much of a sniff.
Fiorentina get the first half of extra time underway. Olympiakos have replaced Francisco Ortega with Quini.
FULL TIME: Olympiakos 0-0 Fiorentina
11 min: It’s been a great start to this match. Both teams could easily have scored already. This surely won’t end goalless.
So yeah, sorry about tempting the football gods like that.
90 min +6: A free kick for Olympiakos on the halfway line. Andre Horta launches it long. Terracciano plucks it from the sky on the edge of his box.
90 min +5: Nzola robs David Carmo down the right flank but takes a heavy touch upon entering the Olympiakos box and the Greek side clear their lines.
90 min +4: Both teams clearly frightened of making that fatal mistake. Most of the fans worried about witnessing one as well. The AEK Arena is so quiet, the tension palpable.
90 min +3: Gonzalez crosses from the left. He’s got folk to find in the middle, but sends the ball far too closely to Tzolakis, who claims.
90 min +1: A long punt towards the Fiorentina box. El Kaabi heads down, onto Martínez Quarta’s arm. He wants a penalty but he’s never getting one.
90 min: There will be seven additional minutes.
89 min: Duncan cuts in from the right and lashes wildly over from the best part of 30 yards.
88 min: It’s very scrappy. Still time for a football match to break out. “Re: 73 min. That’s gracious of Jovetic. I’m sure Fiorentina fans have also promised to not celebrate if he scores.” Yep, Peter Oh. Here all week. Try the dolmades.
86 min: Rodinei is sent into acres of space down the right by Podence’s cute flick, but blooters his cross over everyone’s head in the centre. Thirty minutes of extra time edge ever closer.
85 min: Dodo comes flying into Jovetic, who was about to step away from him on the left flank. Just a free kick, no booking. André Horta swings it in and El Kaabi flashes a header wide right. Olympiakos are getting closer and closer during these late exchanges.
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83 min: A double roll of the dice by Fiorentina, as Bonaventura and Kouame are replaced by Barak and Ikone.
81 min: Fiorentina send a corner in from the right. A scramble. A whistle. Beginning to feel like extra time is an inevitability.
80 min: André Horta curls the free kick into the mixer. Iborra eyebrows a header towards the top left. Just wide. Had that been on target, the desperately stretching Terracciano was beaten all ends up.
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79 min: Rodinei dribbles down the right touchline and is agriculturally upended by Kouame, who goes into the book as a result. A free kick and a chance for Olympiakos to load the box.
77 min: The flurry of subs continues apace, as André Horta comes on for his Olympiakos team-mate Chiquinho.
75 min: Fiorentina replace Arthur with Alfred Duncan.
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73 min: Jovetić has reportedly promised not to celebrate should he score against his former team tonight. Aye, right, let’s see how this plays out if he sends one into the top corner from 25 yards in the fifth added minute. Fair play to him if he keeps a straight face after that.
72 min: Olympiakos replace their captain Kostas Fortounis with the former Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetić.
70 min: Nothing comes of the resulting corner. Thing is, while that was nearly a crazy fluke, it was also a great chance spurned. Another. Fiorentina have been making a habit of this for the entire season, by all accounts.
69 min: Nzola skitters down the right. The ball’s shuttled infield to Dodo, and further on to Kouamé, in space just inside the box on the left. Kouamé miskicks comically, hitting the ball into the ground. It springs up and nearly flies over Tzolakis, who claws away from the top-left corner just in time. That would have been one of the wildest flukes in major-final history.
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67 min: Nerves are beginning to kick in now, if the lack of moves involving consecutive passes is anything to go by.
65 min: A Fiorentina corner on the right. Arthur sends an outswinger into the box. Milenković rises highest and whistles a downward header wide right from ten yards. Another big chance goes by, and we’re still waiting for that opening goal.
64 min: Retsos continues to play, despite earlier coming off worse in that clash of heads with Belotti. The Fiorentina man has since been subbed, and he’s now sitting on the bench with a huge ice-pack pressed to the top of his head, so goodness knows how Retsos must be feeling right now.
63 min: Fortounis sends a chest-high cross in from the right. Podence traps and volleys … but volleys the nearby Dodo, as opposed to the ball. An accident, some well-positioned defending, and Podence takes a while to recover from the sting to his shin.
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61 min: Hezze steals the ball from Bonaventura in the centre circle. Illegally, as it turns out. Hezze catches the ball and thinks about getting right up in the referee’s grille, but suddenly thinks better of it, just in time, just before he talks himself into a world of trouble. For a split second there, the red mist came down on Hezze.
59 min: Fiorentina make the first change. Andrea Belotti is replaced by M’Bala Nzola, who has three goals to his name in this campaign so far.
58 min: Chiquinho makes a little space for himself down the right, but his low cross goes behind El Kaabi in the middle. Neither keeper involved since the restart.
56 min: Retsos on the ball. He looks clearer of head now as he drives down the middle, then seconds later involving himself in a couple of challenges on the right flank. All OK at the minute, but he really didn’t look in good shape back there.
54 min: Podence again makes his presence felt down the left, winning a corner that comes to nothing. The game still sputtering along.
53 min: Well, this is really odd. The Olympiakos trainer performed the internationally recognised hand-jive mime for substitution, waving to the bench as Retsos’s knees buckled a little. But now the player is insisting on continuing. Back on he comes. Surely not for long. Not a good look for the physio or any of the officials, this.
51 min: … but then Retsos goes back down. He looks really groggy. He stands up again, but is clearly shaken up. He’ll play no more part.
50 min: Belotti is up again quickly enough. Retsos takes a while longer to get back to his feet, but thankfully he’s cleared to continue as well. This second period hasn’t quite got going yet.
48 min: Podence takes a gentle whack upside the head but the referee waves play on. He doesn’t waste time in whistling, however, when Belotti and Retsos stick the nut on each other, accidentally but at great speed. On come the trainers.
47 min: A slow start to the half. Neither team look in the mood to make any crazy commitments just yet.
Olympiakos get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time postbag, courtesy of Chris Paraskevas. “This is a match of Homeric proportions for Kostas Fortounis: a potentially-career defining 143 minutes (assuming extra time, injury time and a couple of quick breaks for a coffee and cigarette). Fortounis had been virtually the only bright spark for the national team in a disastrous decade, before falling out of favour / retiring himself. Leading a Greek club to a first European trophy would signpost a career that initially promised so much but hasn’t really hit any great heights. PS. I’m still seething over Newcastle’s embarrassing 8-0 loss. And as an AEK fan this lot potentially winning in Agia Sofia is really bothering me. Rough morning.”
HALF TIME: Olympiakos 0-0 Fiorentina
Just enough time for Tzolakis to fumble a long ball on the edge of his box – again – and that’s the end of a half of two halves. The first 20-odd minutes were much better than the ones that followed.
45 min: There will be one additional first-half minute.
43 min: Fortounis latches onto a loose ball down the inside-right channel. From 25 yards, near the touchline, he attempts a first-time shot. Full marks for ambition if nothing else. Throw to Fiorentina.
42 min: Martínez Quarta is booked for clattering into the back of Podence, who had diddled him all ends up with an agile turn.
41 min: El Kaabi chases Podence’s looped pass down the inside-left channel and for a second looks likely to get there before Terracciano. But he doesn’t. The keeper punches clear and takes a whack upside the head for his trouble. The striker was within his rights to compete for that, and it’s a foul, no more, no less. Happily the keeper’s fine to continue.
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39 min: The initial free kick is no good, but Bonaventura regains possession on the left and crosses deep. Kouame rises at the far stick and nods back for Gonzalez, whose eyes light up, six yards out. He shins over. Big chance there.
38 min: Belotti is pointlessly wrestled to the ground by David Carmo, 25 yards out on the right. A chance for Fiorentina to line-up on the edge of the Olympiakos box and await Biraghi’s delivery.
37 min: Both teams are playing within themselves right now. Fiorentina passing without probing, Olympiakos happy to sit back and let them go nowhere.
35 min: González attempts to find Kouame on the left with a spectacular crossfield diagonal. Too spectacular, too crossfield, too diagonal. Throw-in.
33 min: Podence in more space down the left. He’s flagged offside this time, but continues to look Olympiakos’s most likely creative outlet.
31 min: Martínez Quarta hoofs long in the 1980s style. Mandragora competes and nearly forces a mistake out of Tzolakis, who fumbles the high ball but eventually claims.
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29 min: Podence, perhaps frustrated after so nearly opening Fiorentina up, clatters into Dodo and that’s the first booking of the match.
28 min: Podence barrels down the left before turning tail and spinning Arthur with absurd ease. His low cross finds El Kaabi, but Milenković sticks to his man and there’s no shot forthcoming.
27 min: Retsos comes sliding in late on Kouamé and is fairly fortunate to escape a booking. File under: it’s not been that sort of game.
25 min: Chiquinho whips the corner in from the left. It’s met by Ortega at the near post. A header flashed goalwards from a tight angle. Terracciano does very well to react at speed, dropping and smothering. Not sure how this is still goalless, but here we are.
24 min: Fortounis and Chiquinho exchange passes down the right, the latter’s deflected, looping shot clearing the bar and earning a corner.
22 min: Bonaventura is sprung clear down the left flank, but can’t lift his shot over Tzolakis, who spreads himself well. The rebound is crossed into the middle, where Belotti heads goalwards. The effort is blocked. Belotti claims a penalty, but there’s no handball there.
21 min: Bonaventura latches onto a poor clearance, just inside the Olympiakos box. He opens his body and attempts to thread a shot into the bottom left. Tzolakis smothers a weak shot easily enough.
20 min: A free kick for Olympiakos, 35 yards out. Fortounis wedges it down the inside-right channel in the hope of finding Iborra, but the ball sails over his team-mate’s head and out of play.
19 min: Podence makes off down the left and looks for El Kaabi in the middle, but can’t find his strike partner with a low cross. The tournament leading scorer hasn’t had much of a sniff yet.
17 min: Fiorentina are beginning to get the upper hand here. Olympiakos haven’t done much since that early Podence shot. “Whether it’s Olympiakos or Olympiacos, it’s all Greek to me,” quips Gary Byrne, because somebody had to.
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15 min: … ends in a goal kick, Biraghi suffering a huge hot rush of blood to the noggin and lumping a wild corner over everyone’s head and straight out of play.
14 min: The Olympiakos defence freezes as one, and Kouamé takes the opportunity to latch onto a loose bouncing ball and have a dig from distance. The shot isn’t all that, but it’s deflected wide right for another corner. The last one ended in a disallowed goal. This one …
12 min: Mandragora attempts a languid Le Tissieresque curler from the edge of the box. It’s always heading wide right, but it would have been mighty pretty had it been on target.
11 min: It’s been a great start to this match. Both teams could easily have scored already. This surely won’t end goalless. A reminder that we’ll have extra time and penalties if it does.
9 min: Fiorentina work a short corner. Biraghi one-twos with Bonaventura and sends a low diagonal ball in from the front edge of the box. Milenković meets it six yards out with a cheeky flick, foxing Tzolakis and rolling the ball into the net. But he’s offside, as both referee and VAR quickly agree.
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8 min: González and Dodo combine crisply down the right, their interchange sending the Greeks into a flat spin. The ball’s hacked out in a panic for the first corner of the match. From which …
7 min: Chiquinho crosses low from the Olympiakos left. Mandragora hacks clear from a crowded box. A lovely open feel to this match.
5 min: Olympiakos take the corner quickly, Fortounis rolling in from the right for Rodinei, who is in space but can’t get a shot away. His low cross is cleared and Fiorentina counter, Kouamé bombing down the left and finding Gonzalez on the right. Gonzalez dribbles in and tees up Belotti, who slices wide left. More of this and we’ll be well entertained this evening!
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4 min: Chiquinho feeds Podence down the left. Podence cuts infield and takes a whack from the left-hand edge of the D. Terracciano sees it late but manages to tip around the right-hand post.
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2 min: A fairly nondescript start, although it’s Fiorentina who are enjoying more of the possession during these early exchanges. “I know the Guardian boffins can handle Greek letters, so let’s just go with Ολυμπιακός.” Ssh, Joe Pearson, don’t be giving anyone any ideas, the job’s hard enough with these fat fingers.
Fiorentina get the ball rolling. “With El Kaabi on a Haalandesque 10 strikes in 8 games, could this final then be dubbed as Florence v The Machine?” Justin Kavanagh, everyone. He’s here all week. Try the moussaka.
The teams are out! Olympiakos are the designated home team, so they get to wear their first-choice colours of red and white. Fiorentina also used to wear red and white, until in 1928 some eejit washed the kit in the Arno, the colours blending into their now-iconic purple. It’s a thin line between eejitry and genius, though in any case, they’re in second-choice white tonight. The atmosphere at the AEK Arena presses all the correct major-final buttons, with both sets of fans making a racket while forming a very aesthetically pleasing sea of red, white and purple. Not totally unlike riverside Florence all those years ago. We’ll be off in a minute!
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Olympiakos striker Ayoub El Kaabi is the leading goalscorer in this year’s Conference League. He’s found the net ten times in eight games, a considerably larger haul than the best Fiorentina has to offer, Nicolás González’s four in 12. However the Viola spread it around a little bit more: 12 members of their squad have scored during this campaign as opposed to Olympiakos’s seven. So it’s swings and roundabouts.
Style guide. The Guardian, along with the BBC by the looks of it, spells the name of our Greek heroes as Olympiakos. Other editorial institutions say “ochi!” and write it up as Olympiacos instead; those include Uefa, the Press Association (who supply our automated score feed at the top of the page) and, er, the club themselves. So why do we do what we do? Let our style guru, production editor and general font of all knowledge Philip Cornwall explain.
It’s moot, transliteration always debatable. I inherited a keyword written that way, we always use Kos not Cos for the island, the 2000 Olympic champ turned 2003 drug test avoider calls himself Kostas Kenteris. But if I didn’t have 64 other things to think about I might change this one to Olympiacos.
So there you have it. The answer to a question you almost certainly weren’t going to ask, coming only at the cost of my pestering the busiest man in the entire company. I reckon he’ll forgive me in a month or two. The things I do for you, dear reader.
Olympiakos finished third in this season’s Super League Greece 1 thanks to a final-day draw at Panathinaikos. The latest edition of the Derby of the Eternal Enemies finished 2-2, Olympiakos coming back from two goals down thanks to late goals from Daniel Podence and Stevan Jovetić. Podence then managed to get himself sent off, but that doesn’t carry over into Uefa competition. They make three changes to their starting XI after that brouhaha: Francisco Ortega, Chiquinho and Vicente Iborra are in, André Horta, João Carvalho and Omar Richards dropping to the bench.
Fiorentina haven’t yet finished their Serie A obligations – they’ll play Europa League champions Atalanta on Sunday – but whatever happens there they’ll finish in eighth place. Their penultimate fixture was at Cagliari last Thursday; they won 3-2, turning things around in the last two minutes with a Nicolas Gonzalez equaliser and an Arthur penalty. Arthur, of 13-minute Liverpool legend, is one of four call-ups to the starting XI after that match; Nicolás González, Lucas Martínez Quarta and Christian Kouamé are also in. Jonathan Ikoné, Luca Ranieri and Antonín Barák drop to the bench, while Gaetano Castrovilli is ineligible.
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The teams
Olympiakos: Tzolakis, Rodinei, Retsos, Carmo, Ortega, Hezze, Iborra, Daniel Podence, Chiquinho, Fortounis, El Kaabi.
Subs: Paschalakis, Andre Horta, El Arabi, Alexandropoulos, Quini, Masouras, Joao Carvalho, Jovetic, Richards, Apostolopoulos, Ndoj, Papadoudis.
Fiorentina: Terracciano, Dodo, Milenkovic, Martinez, Biraghi, Arthur, Mandragora, Gonzalez, Bonaventura, Kouame, Belotti.
Subs: Lopez, Beltran, Ikone, Ranieri, Nzola, Infantino, Faraoni, Duncan, Kayode, Christensen, Parisi, Barak.
Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal).
Η ενδεκάδα της ομάδας μας για το ματς κόντρα στην Φιορεντίνα! / Our line-up for today’s match against Fiorentina! 🔴⚪️#Olympiacos #OLYFIO #UECLfinal pic.twitter.com/k5CvrjIse4
— Olympiacos FC (@olympiacosfc) May 29, 2024
Il nostro XI contro l’Olympiacos⚜️
— ACF Fiorentina (@acffiorentina) May 29, 2024
Powered by @easportsfcit #ForzaViola💜 #ForzaViola #OlympiacosFiorentina #ACFFiorentina #uecl #ueclfinal pic.twitter.com/WCKMItrlVb
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Preamble
A couple of big narrative strands dangle over the AEK Arena tonight, just begging to be tied up. Will Olympiakos become the first-ever Greek side to win a major European club trophy? They’ll take possession of the Greatest Recent Cup Run baton from Manchester United if they do, having come back from a 4-1 first-leg home defeat against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the round of 16, and stuck six goals past upwardly mobile Aston Villa in the semis. Or can Fiorentina lift their first European pot in 63 years, since the 1961 Cup Winners’ Cup? They’ll extend their unbeaten run on the continent to 14 matches if they manage it, their last defeat being in last season’s final against West Ham. Should they go one step further this time, they’ll honour their victory to their late general manager Joe Barone, who died in March.
The Viola are slight bookies favourites to follow Roma and the Hammers as champions of Uefa’s sparkly new competition. But Olympiacos of Piraeus, part of Greater Athens, have home advantage – sort of, on their city rivals AEK Athens’ turf – and are coached by a man who won last year’s Europa League, José Luís Mendilibar, formerly of Sevilla. So this is set up to be a cracker. Here’s hoping it delivers. Strand-knotting begins at 8pm BST, 10pm local. It’s on!
