Aston Villa v Olympiacos - Post-Match Thread

[Keeno]

Never a 2-4 performance (by either side) everything that could go against us did.

2nd leg could be 4-0 either way or anything in between.

Agreed.

Yeah bang on. We can absolutely win 2-0 in the next leg.

[CT Villan]

We will likely need to score more than three in Piraeus to win because we have forgotten how to keep a clean sheet.

[PeterWithesShin]

I still fancy this game going to ET.

Ouch

[stubbsyandy]

Half time

[edgysatsuma89]

I still fancy this game going to ET.

Ouch

He'd love it.

[Rigadon]

And on the plus side, all the "Champions League qualification is more important" crowd will be thrilled with how this evening has gone.

Not really necessary, no?

Why? The more important thing is more likely now than it was two hours ago. We're a bit closer to the thing that matters.

Well, I’m gutted that we’re likely out of another cup, and the semi-final is always the worst time to lose (maybe apart from the 2015 final, which was horrible), but the Spurs result is some consolation.

We weee unlucky to lose I thought.

We were unlucky to lose the game and I think we'll win the return.  And it's ace that Spurs lost.

[Villafirst]

Why did Emery leave Pau Torres on the bench??

[Demitri_C]

Its not just tonight though. We fell apart 2nd half against chelsea and almost lost the game.

Injuries are nit helping we know that but somwtimes you have to give some youngsters a chance to breed some energy. He is rarely used kesler or kellyman for example.

Honestly thwy should be embarrassed by that performance.  They masisveky disgraced themselves tonight ans the fans expected better

[Steve67]

We haven't really played that well in this tournament at all, apart from pockets here and there, just my opinion but tonight was really poor.  Olsen is crap, I'd rather have the kid in goal as he's an unknown quantity and we all know what Olsen is like.  Konsa needs a proper partner, even he was poor tonight.  Cash, Lenglet need to go.  Digne's crossing was shit and his defending not a great deal better.  Luiz is slow to move the ball and the penalty at both ends, summed up his last few weeks.  Diaby offered little either.  It was poor all round.  What a time to have a collective shitfest performance.  We can score goals, but we cannot defend.

[itbrvilla]

Why did Emery leave Pau Torres on the bench??

brain fart. The league is out to lose and the cup we needed to go for as they all kept telling us.

[AV84]

Be great if we can seal the CL this weekend with a win and another Spurs loss. Then go all out next Thursday knowing that game and the final are all we need to focus on.

[steamer]

Unprofessional, sloppy, lazy, badly organised. Worst performance of the season.

pretty good summary, but I would add Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea twice to that.

[Chris_Jephcott]

If there is one positive that I might be able to draw, it’s overconfidence.

They’ll be going home thinking that it’s game over and they have a 2 goal lead. In the next game, if we have Emi back, swap Lenglet for Pau we ditch Dougie and replace him with Tielemans, and go all chaos on the attack, they will not know what has hit them.

A full strength Villa is a very different Villa to what we have seen in the last few weeks.

We are tired, our paper thin squad has been stretched by fatigue, injuries and suspensions. Dougie is gassed. He does care, his reaction to his missed penalty says it all.

It’s going to be a massive ask though in a very hostile environment. And I don’t think we’ll do it this time. If that penalty went in, we would have. But based on the performance tonight, the ineptitude of the CL referees and past history, it doesn’t look likely.

I just hope we learn from this. We’re good at times, but equally a chronic attack of the turds at other times. We need to wise up to this, we’ve been unlucky with injuries… but maybe we were lucky to have lasted this long without a meltdown somewhere?

[pauliewalnuts]

We haven't really played that well in this tournament at all, apart from pockets here and there, just my opinion but tonight was really poor.  Olsen is crap, I'd rather have the kid in goal as he's an unknown quantity and we all know what Olsen is like.  Konsa needs a proper partner, even he was poor tonight.  Cash, Lenglet need to go.  Digne's crossing was shit and his defending not a great deal better.  Luiz is slow to move the ball and the penalty at both ends, summed up his last few weeks.  Diaby offered little either.  It was poor all round.  What a time to have a collective shitfest performance.  We can score goals, but we cannot defend.

I'd agree with that, but I think we've put in more shit performances than decent ones for about two months now, but seem to be just about getting away with it, both in the league and this competition.

[LeonW]

Can Matt Cash please please learn how to keep a defensive line? It’s always him playing someone onside.