Olympiacos has made history by becoming the first Greek club to win a major European trophy after beating Fiorentina 1-0 in extra time to clinch the Europe Conference League title. It was another heartbreak for Fiorentina on the other hand as they had to endure their second Conference League final loss in a row. Last season they lost the final 2-1 to West Ham after Jarrod Bowen scored a late goal and now they have suffered another loss to Olympiacos. This must be especially disappointing as they had not lost a game in the entire campaign before the final. They are now the first side to lose two major European finals in a row since Benfica lost the Europa League final in 2013 and 2014.
The match which took place in Athens was a high-octane game but lacked quality in front of goal. The Italian side created chances but just couldn’t put them away. They thought they had broken the deadlock early in the first half but Nikola Milenkovic’s goal was ruled out for offside. Nicolas Gonzalez also failed to put away a fine chance for Fiorentina towards the end of the first half. Both sides came close and created chances in the second half but neither had that little magic to put it away in normal time thus pushing the game to extra time.
El-Kaabi finally headed in Santiago Hezze’s cross in the 118th minute to put the Greek side ahead and they calmly saw the rest of the game off to clinch the trophy. El Kaabi was deservedly named Man of the Man for his performance as celebration kicked off in the stadium.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored the winner in the Europa Conference League finalÂ
OLYMPIACOS ROAD TO THE FINAL
The Greek club has not had it easy this season. Currently on their third manager, Jose Luis Mendilibar, who took over just in February. Over the course of their campaign, they had to play some serious opponents like Fenerbahçe, Aston Villa, and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Mendilibar seems to have turned the team around since his arrival at the club and inspired them to overturn a 4-1 home defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last 16. They subsequently knocked out Fenerbahçe in the quarterfinals on penalties to set up the decisive semi final fixture with Aston Villa who they defeated 6-2 on aggregate to reach the final of the competition.
José Luis Mendilibar. Image source @europacnfleague on X
THE STARS OF THE CAMPAIGN
Two people were pivotal to the triumph of Olympiacos; the manager Jose Luis Mendilibar and their striker Ayoub El-Kaabi
Mendilibar was the same coach that defeated Jose Mourinho’s Roma in the Europa League final last year to help Sevilla win their record seventh Europa League title and now he has turned Olympiacos into European Champions as well.
Image source @europacnfleague on X
Striker El-Kaabi has been clutch for the Greek side in this campaign. Apart from scoring the winner in the final, he scored five of Olympiacos’s six goals in their triumph against Aston Villa including a hattrick at Villa Park. He scored two goals in their 7-5 comeback against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and scored two goals in their 2-0 playoff win over Ferencvaros. The Moroccan striker has scored a total of 33 goals for Olympiacos in his first season with 14 of them in Europe. He scored a record ten goals in eight Europa Conference League knockout round matches and now has a total of 11 goals in this Conference League Knockout stage alone.
Image source @europacnfleague on X
Olympiakos and Fiorentina will play in the Conference League again next season. Do you think Fiorentina have what it takes to reach a third final in a row? Can they go all the way next season?