Aston Villa v Olympiacos - Post-Match Thread

[Somniloquism]

Leon’s goal was chalked off for Lenglet pulling their player’s shirt.  When it’s so blatant it’s always going to get ruled out.

It is a weird one being as the players whose shirt was being tugged fell forward and away from Lenglet. It was an on-field call wasn't it? I don't think VAR would have over-ruled it if the goal was given.

I think even the most incompetent VAR team are always going to give that as a foul. They have to justify their existence, and the pulling of a shirt is a very noticeable action, and less easy to brush off than just a nudge in the back or whatever.

No they don't. They follow all on field activity and call on missed decisions. Shirt pulls happen all the time in the box and are very rarely called unless there is a specific advantage. As Drummond stated, the fact it ricocheted off him and to Bailey might have swung it, but I also don't think the pull was the reason he was on the floor. If they had called it, it would have been the on-field ref who would have had to judge on the advantage gained but at least he could see it better then.

[Brend'Watkins]

Just like Chelsea they pressurized us well and didn't allow us to get any rhythm in the game.  I think we underestimated them too.  What we need to do in the return leg is put some zip into our game. They will want to naturally defend their two goal lead we need to be at them from the off, take the game to them and get an early goal.  A bit of route one might help too.

[Somniloquism]

Apparently it's the same ref over there. We're going to have to batter them if that's true because we won't be getting any favours.

Strange that they had an English ref squad for one semi-final and an Italian one for the other. I would have thought it would have been ones from any other country then the any of the four who were competing just to squash any potential claims of trying to rig the opponents for the final.

Why not German or Spanish?

[Brazilian Villain]

Apparently it's the same ref over there. We're going to have to batter them if that's true because we won't be getting any favours.

Strange that they had an English ref squad for one semi-final and an Italian one for the other. I would have thought it would have been ones from any other country then the any of the four who were competing just to squash any potential claims of trying to rig the opponents for the final.

The Fiorentina scarf he was wearing was bit of a giveaway.

[LeeB]

No mentions of HIM please.

[WassallVillain]

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.

My mate text me who was watching it on the box , and mentioned the Olympiacos kit clashing with ours. Didn't see it myself , might be clutching at straws , but would explain McGinn passing directly to their players  5 or 6 times last night ! I just think we played poor , they made their own luck. Feel a little more positive today than leaving the ground last night. A massive task , but not unacheivable.

We were at the game ... my dad commented about the kits looking very similar too.

Yep wasn't a great combination. I presume we'll play in our 3rd kit for the away leg.

It was like they were wearing camouflage. Next week in their normal red and white shirts they won’t find it quite so easy to hide in plain sight.   Straws being tightly clutched.

[Proposition Joe]

If nothing else, we can write this semi final off as a lesson learned for the Champions League next season. And that lesson is: don't be shit.

But on the bright side, we have won away by two or more goals a few times this season, it's not like it's unprecedented.

[Demitri_C]

I personally dont thinkwe will get any decisions in aaay leg so we just need to score the goals and outplay them so the ref factor isnt a option.

But i must say the referring performance last night was abysmal. Seriously awful

Apparently it's the same ref over there. We're going to have to batter them if that's true because we won't be getting any favours.

Your joking ??

Since when is this a rule ??

We are totally fucked of thats the case

[Ads]

If we're reliant on the referee doing us favours, then we're in difficulty. We don't need him to turn this around.

[Brazilian Villain]

If we're reliant on the referee doing us favours, then we're in difficulty. We don't need him to turn this around.

But it would help if he wasn't screwing us over.

[Mister E]

It’s been a long time since I was so disappointed by a result, everything went against us but when we are bad we seem to concede far more than our performances deserve.
We were well on top but found ourselves two down, the second looked offside to me but there you go, the offside trap is high risk and that’s the breaks.
I think they surprised us with how many men they committed forward and how much energy they had all over the field, it sounds like sour grapes but I didn’t think they were any good but they did work very hard with and without the ball.
After getting back to 2-2 the penalty killed us, it seemed to suck the little energy left out of the players and crowd alike. There were many instances of mental tiredness, stupid unforced errors we just weren’t making earlier in the season, Ollie running the ball out a few times, SJM and Dug giving the ball to them on the edge of our area.
Something not mentioned which really annoyed me, Diaby getting sucked into that argument before our penalty, all it achieved was making us wait to take it. Brainless.
I think they only 4 shots all game. Their CF scored a hat trick and I don’t know if he’s any good as he didn’t touch the ball other than whacking it into our net three times.
Seems a brilliant opportunity wasted. The season has caught us up and we haven’t got the bodies to change things up.

Agreed. However, I felt that our starting line-up was too open: we effectively had a 2-man midfield, which is asking too much of McGinn and Luiz at this point in the season and also meant that the front four were a little disconnected from the rest of the team. Add to that the fact that the Greeks came with great attacking intent and it was no surprise that we were 2 down so early on. Having said all that, some of our attacking Was pretty good and should have garnered more than we got.

[LeeB]

A special mention for the arsehole that lives here on the left with the driveway, who mounted the kerb whilst the pavement was several deep with fans screaming and hurling abuse because he wanted to get on his drive:




I gave him a tap on the window and reminded him it was a pavement and not a fucking road. No drop kerb there either, might have a word with the council about that.

[PeterWithe]

Anyone else see that small gang of female pickpockets by Witton Island at the end of the game?

[Somniloquism]

Not seeing anything about confirmed 2nd leg referee appointments. The 1st leg was only confirmed on Tuesday morning so I expect the same next week.

[kippaxvilla2]

It’s Kevin Friend.