Olympiacos v Villa Pre-match Thread

[Toronto Villa]

Appears that Emi and Tielemans starting tonight

Half right

I was overly optimistic and wrong. Sadly

[Holy Trinity]

What's with Cash on the wing? Does that mean diaby through the middle and bailey out wide?

[KevinGage]

Olympiakos fan here. Some comments make me wonder if we saw a different game. No one can disagree that Villa is the better team by far and for us to win the 1st leg happened because of luck, villa's injuries, villas overconfidence, tiredness and a very friendly ref towards us. But there is a huge difference between a friendly ref who gave the  few disputed incidents in our favor than the AL Capone that many of you present  him. He is not the Tunisian ref who allowed Maradona score with his hand. Sure he could.have allowed the goal instead of giving a foul but it's not like he invented something non existing. We all saw the attacker pulling the defenders shirt and then the ball hitting his head while he was down for an easy goal for Bailey. He could have given Baileys penalty sure. But also in this case the defender kicks the ball first before their feet entangled. About the penalty we were given, extended arm is always considered penalty and doesn't matter if he wasn't looking or if he had no intention. If all those cases were in favor of Villa instead, then it would have been us complaining about a hostile ref. Anyway we are expecting a tough game against a better team that won't make the same mistake to underestimate us this time. It's 50/50

Welcome.

We had a rubbish ref in the second leg in Lille. Flamboyant and inept in equal measure.

Flamboyantly inept, if you will.  But he was that way for both sides, and kinda killed the game as a spectacle sadly.

The Italian fella last week looked like he had an offer he couldn't refuse. Which - with respect - when you have the kind of owner you do - isn't totally out of question. You can see with how he's tried to bully officialdom here with Notts Forest he's used to getting his own way. It seems to be a genuine shock to him here that he can't (usually) get away with it in the UK.

Maybe it's magic Marinakis or ropey Italian betting syndicates yanking Filippo Meli's chain. Either way, a more skilled grey cardinal wouldn't have made it as blatant.

And as if by magic, we have an official this evening previously done for match fixing. Hmm.

Best of luck for the rest of the season - after this game, obv.