Aston Villa v Olympiacos - Post-Match Thread

[boozey182]

I said last night coming out of the ground that if you play that game 100 times, we’d end up losing by two goals in one or two of them. I guess that doesn’t really matter - we have to accept the score and deal with it, but I think it does give some cause for optimism.

McGinn said that everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and I think that’s a pretty accurate way of describing it. It wasn’t just the fact that so many of our players looked off it, or the fact that everything they hit flew into the net, or the refereeing decisions, or the missed penalty - even the little details went against us. Our players kept losing their footing, every ricochet bounced kindly into their path - just every little detail went in their favour.

In the build up to the second goal, one of their players attempted a flick back to the guy that had passed it to him. It was awful - nowhere near the intended target, but rolled right into the path of a different teammate. Stuff like that was happening all game.

You do make your own luck, though, and the fact that they were more committed and energetic than us does explain some of this. I’m not making excuses for the result - they deserve to be ahead because they scored more goals than us - but I think there is plenty to be hopeful for the next leg. Last night was a perfect storm of things going to shit (a perfect shit storm?). That won’t happen next week.

Lille outplayed us over two legs and we managed to get through. Olympiakos have outscored us in one leg, but they don’t appear to have the same quality. We may be able to use their crowd against them next week, if we get off to a good start.

We look (understandably) knackered. But the players need to find something for the next 7 days. Two convincing wins will change everything, and I know that they are capable of producing that. With players coming back from injury/suspension/rest(?) the team will be stronger next week. And things won’t go as badly as they did last night. That sort of stuff just doesn’t happen twice in a week.

We’re up against it, for sure, and it’s not going to be easy, but if we can win on Sunday, that would be a massive, and potentially decisive, step into fulfilling our league objectives. The psychological boost that will give us is massive - being able to turn our full attention to the cup could lift a huge burden off their shoulders. It's another huge week. (Remember all the times our season was basically over by March?!)

It’s far from over.

[The Edge]

The non penalty for the challenge on Bailey has to be seen to be believed. That was as blatant as it gets. They disallow our goal for a slight tug on a shirt and they fail to give that pen. Is it anti PL bias or is it just plain old incompetence?

I saw it as exactly the same as the Saka one against Bayern. Checking the run slightly to make sure that contact happens.

Saka planted his leg where he knew there would be contact. Bailey did no such thing. Their player just deliberately entagled his legs with Bailey and he consequently brought him down. Blatant pen for me.

[brontebilly]

The non penalty for the challenge on Bailey has to be seen to be believed. That was as blatant as it gets. They disallow our goal for a slight tug on a shirt and they fail to give that pen. Is it anti PL bias or is it just plain old incompetence?

I saw it as exactly the same as the Saka one against Bayern. Checking the run slightly to make sure that contact happens.

Thought the same watching the replay. Not as blatant as the Saka one but Bailey made sure he got the contact all the same. What was his goal disallowed for?

[Dave]

The non penalty for the challenge on Bailey has to be seen to be believed. That was as blatant as it gets. They disallow our goal for a slight tug on a shirt and they fail to give that pen. Is it anti PL bias or is it just plain old incompetence?

I saw it as exactly the same as the Saka one against Bayern. Checking the run slightly to make sure that contact happens.

Thought the same watching the replay. Not as blatant as the Saka one but Bailey made sure he got the contact all the same. What was his goal disallowed for?

Lenglet pulled the guy's shirt in the scramble just before.

[Drummond]

We were 2 goals down and pulled level. We can do that again next week.

Overall we weren't good enough last night, regardless of luck etc. 'we didn't play well, we need to play better.... need to compete better... ' that's what Emery said and he's right.

[caster troy]

Conceding straight after equalising, conceding a flukey deflection and missing a penalty are three of the worst gut punches you can face and we had all three in one half. I really thought we were set for a grand stand finish when Diaby scored.

At the time I thought Doug should have given the penalty to Watkins, he'd had a poor game and I don't think he was in the right place psychologically to take it. Ollie had one chance earlier and buried it, sometimes there needs to be some common sense in these situations.

At last we know what we have to do in the second leg. If we get the first goal we have a chance.

[Brazilian Villain]

Conceding straight after equalising, conceding a flukey deflection and missing a penalty are three of the worst gut punches you can face and we had all three in one half. I really thought we were set for a grand stand finish when Diaby scored.

At the time I thought Doug should have given the penalty to Watkins, he'd had a poor game and I don't think he was in the right place psychologically to take it. Ollie had one chance earlier and buried it, sometimes there needs to be some common sense in these situations.

At last we know what we have to do in the second leg. If we get the first goal we have a chance.

Agree with all that, had a feeling he'd miss the penalty after the delay.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Wot boozey182 said.
Things (ref/run of the ball/timing of goals etc etc) couldn't have gone better for them, couldn't have gone worse for us. Can't see that happening again, although their energy and pace and high press seemed to intimidate us out of all proportion (even though SJM says Olympiacos played exactly as expected!) and suggested they wanted it more than we did!
With Big Emi back and maybe Tielemans, with more aggression and good fortune/less shit ref, there are many reasons to be positive about next Thursday.

[Bully2345]

At the time I thought Doug should have given the penalty to Watkins, he'd had a poor game and I don't think he was in the right place psychologically to take it. Ollie had one chance earlier and buried it, sometimes there needs to be some common sense in these situations.

Your penalty taker is your penalty taker. It's very hindsight to say that a bloke who has never missed a penalty shouldn't have taken a penalty.

Also, although it didn't affect the penalty directly, Diaby getting into shenanigans fighting for his space on the corner of the D was understandable briefly but the longer it went on was just forcing Luiz to wait and wait.

[Demitri_C]

Positives for sure where the 2 goals scored.
Watkins and Diaby finishing was superb!
Seemed a bit over run in midfield areas in transition however another day Villa score several more.
Prayers and thoughts to the supporter who was taken to hospital I hope that they will be ok.
Does anyone have any info or knowledge on this.
God bless them.
That's the most important thing tonight the welfare of supporter

Medical attention will almost certainly be more useful than prayers.

Mods….. what the rules for getting me banned again. I can’t read the absolute bollocks that comes out of the mouths of Risso,Demitri C and Paulie. What a bunch of pricks. At least DC is only annoying the other two are just Cs. If they spoke to people the way they do on here the other side of a keyboard they’d be seeking medical assistance pretty urgently.

Is that good enough?

HERE HERE

Oh dear

Made the absolutely fundamental error of being on a match thread for a match which is going badly and not realising what those conditions are like.

A bit like going to judging the state of British democracy by watching PMQs in the Johnson - Corbyn era.

You dont need to defend yourself paulie i saw nothing wrong with your posts and the poster should be absolutely embarrassed with that post just choosing a group of posters he doesnt like and then alluding to violence.  Sums up his charchter perfectly

[Demitri_C]

After a nightmare journey back last night, just able to post now.
Awful, Doug played worst I have seen him since the SG days. Olsen playing put fear of God into our defence, they looked so nervy - so many mis-placed passes. They did surprise us the way they went for it esp 1st half.
Bad day at the office all round, hopefully Martínez, Pau Torres and Tielemans will be back this weekend.

Honestly id rather save all three for Thursday night.

Give gauci a start vs brighton.  Id do lenglet and carlos at cb with konsa on bench.

Get timmy in there give him a start and lets just see how it goes

Wow, 100% No. Prem and securing 4th is the absolute priority, a win Sunday would all but secure Champions League Football .

I know what your saying tim. Its a tough one but i rwally want a trophy and i just think its gonna be good part of the Cl gang but if we have  a realistic chance of winning  a trophy we need to go out to win it

[brontebilly]

Conceding straight after equalising, conceding a flukey deflection and missing a penalty are three of the worst gut punches you can face and we had all three in one half. I really thought we were set for a grand stand finish when Diaby scored.

At the time I thought Doug should have given the penalty to Watkins, he'd had a poor game and I don't think he was in the right place psychologically to take it. Ollie had one chance earlier and buried it, sometimes there needs to be some common sense in these situations.

At last we know what we have to do in the second leg. If we get the first goal we have a chance.

Agree with all that, had a feeling he'd miss the penalty after the delay.

Would have been a huge call to take the penalty away from Doug given he hadn't missed one all season. His one in the shoot out v Lille was superb. Seemed like he changed his mind somewhat, usually he slots them low in the corner but this one was higher than normal.
He is struggling for form/confidence right now, that penalty he gave away was a moment of insanity.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

I said last night coming out of the ground that if you play that game 100 times, we’d end up losing by two goals in one or two of them. I guess that doesn’t really matter - we have to accept the score and deal with it, but I think it does give some cause for optimism.

McGinn said that everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and I think that’s a pretty accurate way of describing it. It wasn’t just the fact that so many of our players looked off it, or the fact that everything they hit flew into the net, or the refereeing decisions, or the missed penalty - even the little details went against us. Our players kept losing their footing, every ricochet bounced kindly into their path - just every little detail went in their favour.

In the build up to the second goal, one of their players attempted a flick back to the guy that had passed it to him. It was awful - nowhere near the intended target, but rolled right into the path of a different teammate. Stuff like that was happening all game.

You do make your own luck, though, and the fact that they were more committed and energetic than us does explain some of this. I’m not making excuses for the result - they deserve to be ahead because they scored more goals than us - but I think there is plenty to be hopeful for the next leg. Last night was a perfect storm of things going to shit (a perfect shit storm?). That won’t happen next week.

Lille outplayed us over two legs and we managed to get through. Olympiakos have outscored us in one leg, but they don’t appear to have the same quality. We may be able to use their crowd against them next week, if we get off to a good start.

We look (understandably) knackered. But the players need to find something for the next 7 days. Two convincing wins will change everything, and I know that they are capable of producing that. With players coming back from injury/suspension/rest(?) the team will be stronger next week. And things won’t go as badly as they did last night. That sort of stuff just doesn’t happen twice in a week.

We’re up against it, for sure, and it’s not going to be easy, but if we can win on Sunday, that would be a massive, and potentially decisive, step into fulfilling our league objectives. The psychological boost that will give us is massive - being able to turn our full attention to the cup could lift a huge burden off their shoulders. It's another huge week. (Remember all the times our season was basically over by March?!)

It’s far from over.

Not sure this well thought out, common sense approach to posting will ever catch on.

[Drummond]

I think one or two of our players looked a little. overawed by it, Rogers as an example, and that's no suprise given his age and lack of experience etc. But grew into it too.

We just didn't pass well, they anticipated a lot of our passing play and made us look really bad at times. I can't see it being so bad again next week.

[Smithy]

We’ve come back from 2-0 down against this lot once already. Absolutely no reason we can’t do it again. :-)

After going to bed last night feeling pretty disconsolate, I’m strangely optimistic about the return leg now. Score in the first 20 minutes and I think they’ll be there for the taking.