Aston Villa captain John McGinn says his team have a ‘mountain to climb’ in Athens next week after slumping to a 4-2 first-leg defeat by Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semi-final – but they are ‘more than capable’ of doing so.
It was a poor performance summed up by Douglas Luiz’s second-half penalty miss. Villa had fought back to 2-2 after the Piraeus team raced into an early two-goal lead.
But then Moroccan striker Ayoub El Kaabi completed his hat-trick and Santiago Hezze struck from range for 4-2.
Unai Emery’s side have left themselves with work to do in the away leg next Thursday if they are to book their place in the competition’s final – which is also in the Greek capital. But skipper McGinn says Villa have not given up yet.
‘We have a mountain to climb but we know we’re capable,’ said the Scotsman.
John McGinn believes Aston Villa can overturn a two-goal deficit next week vs Olympiacos
It was a tough night for the Villans who were beaten 4-2 by the Greek side in the semi-final
Unai Emery praised the visitors but claimed his side were ‘frustrated and disappointed’
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‘They’re a good side. We wanted a victory going to Greece. We showed we’re capable of coming back. [There were] mistakes all round tonight.
‘We’ll take responsibility but it’s up to us to go to Athens and turn it around because we’re capable.
‘They played very well tactically. Everything that could have gone wrong tonight did. The manager was still positive in (the dressing room). There’s still a long way to go.’
Emery himself added: ‘We didn’t play like we are playing. We need to keep being consistent.
‘They deserved to win. They are a good team. They have experience. It’s not about luck. We didn’t play well. We have to play better. They deserved to win.
‘We are frustrated and disappointed. We did not play well. We were playing so fast and we needed to have more passes to get into the box. They did well and we did not. Congratulations to them.
‘But we will try next week to come back. They are the favourites.’
Olympiacos scored twice in the second half after Aston Villa had pulled the scores back to 2-2
Ayoub El Kaabi was the standout, scoring twice early on before completing his hat-trick
Douglas Luiz apologised to the fans inside Villa Park after he missed a second-half penalty
Olympiacos boss Jose Luis Mendilibar saw hat-trick hero El Kaabi take his season tally to 30 goals.
‘We were ourselves and played without having to think about our rival,’ said the Basque, who like Emery has tasted European success at Sevilla.
‘We were not scared of Aston Villa.’
