⚽UEFA Conference League Discussion Thread -- 2023/24 | SFs

[temple]

Aston Villa already slayed the biggest opponent in Conference League, I think there's no reason Aston Villa can't become a champion, considering Olympiacos, Club Brugge and Fiorentina are mediocre teams. Both Olympiacos and Club Brugge on their domestic leagues, Fiorentina play in a top league, but they're just top 10 teams in there.

This will be a good momentum for Aston Villa, they haven't become a champion since 1995.

I believe there is a good reason why Aston Villa would not become the champion and besides the fact that they first have to qualify for the final, I believe that Fiorentina would be a very tough opponent in a final. I know that they haven't been doing very well lately in the domestic league, but I think they are hard to play against when there is a title at stake and they remind themselves of what they are able to. In Serie A they are quite lost in the middle of the table, but I would not underestimate them in a Conference League final.

[Palakka]

Aston Villa already slayed the biggest opponent in Conference League, I think there's no reason Aston Villa can't become a champion, considering Olympiacos, Club Brugge and Fiorentina are mediocre teams. Both Olympiacos and Club Brugge on their domestic leagues, Fiorentina play in a top league, but they're just top 10 teams in there.

This will be a good momentum for Aston Villa, they haven't become a champion since 1995.

Aston Villa performance in the Conference League is fairly stable and consistent so indeed they deserve to be favorites to reach the final round of this season, a difficult journey I think has just been passed by Aston Villa and it proves that their mentality and performance at this time is really extraordinary, Lille is one of the big teams in the French League and their ability in Ligue 1 is also like Aston Villa which is currently Being ranked 4 English League, the match between the two teams was very exciting and even both could beat at home with a score of 2-1 so as to make the aggregate goals to 3-3 in second leg,to force the winner of the match to be determined by penalty kicks.

For now I think only Aston Villa has indeed proven to be able to destroy the big teams in the Conference League, after previously destroying Ajax who is the favorite to win, Aston Villa also managed to get Lille out of the Conference League championship competition this season, so I quite agree if maybe for now no team can prevent Aston Villa from winning the championship,  But I think Fiorentina would be an ideal opponent and would make it a little difficult for Aston Villa later if they could reach the final.

[Lillominato89]

Aston Villa already slayed the biggest opponent in Conference League, I think there's no reason Aston Villa can't become a champion, considering Olympiacos, Club Brugge and Fiorentina are mediocre teams. Both Olympiacos and Club Brugge on their domestic leagues, Fiorentina play in a top league, but they're just top 10 teams in there.

This will be a good momentum for Aston Villa, they haven't become a champion since 1995.

Aston Villa performance in the Conference League is fairly stable and consistent so indeed they deserve to be favorites to reach the final round of this season, a difficult journey I think has just been passed by Aston Villa and it proves that their mentality and performance at this time is really extraordinary, Lille is one of the big teams in the French League and their ability in Ligue 1 is also like Aston Villa which is currently Being ranked 4 English League, the match between the two teams was very exciting and even both could beat at home with a score of 2-1 so as to make the aggregate goals to 3-3 in second leg,to force the winner of the match to be determined by penalty kicks.

For now I think only Aston Villa has indeed proven to be able to destroy the big teams in the Conference League, after previously destroying Ajax who is the favorite to win, Aston Villa also managed to get Lille out of the Conference League championship competition this season, so I quite agree if maybe for now no team can prevent Aston Villa from winning the championship,  But I think Fiorentina would be an ideal opponent and would make it a little difficult for Aston Villa later if they could reach the final.

I agree with you, for me Aston Villa deserves to reach the final of this conference league, I believe that among the four teams left in the running they are the strongest. Now two very interesting semifinals await us Aston villa - Olympiakos Fiorentina - Club Brugges For Fiorentina it is the second time they have reached the semifinals, and they will try to reach the final even though the opponent is a tough one

[CLS63]

I still can't believe how we lost the matchup against Olympiacos like this.    It was mostly because of our manager's fault unfortunately as he wasn't good at all with tactical choices. I had big hopes from Fenerbahçe to reach at least the semi finals and face Aston Villa. Even if we got past Olympiacos I assume that we would be destroyed by Aston Villa with this game though.

From now on I expect Aston Villa to destroy Olympiacos. They should be able to finish the job in the first leg already. I don't expect Aston Villa to lose the Conference League title to any team as well.

[buwaytress]

I still can't believe how we lost the matchup against Olympiacos like this.    It was mostly because of our manager's fault unfortunately as he wasn't good at all with tactical choices. I had big hopes from Fenerbahçe to reach at least the semi finals and face Aston Villa. Even if we got past Olympiacos I assume that we would be destroyed by Aston Villa with this game though.

From now on I expect Aston Villa to destroy Olympiacos. They should be able to finish the job in the first leg already. I don't expect Aston Villa to lose the Conference League title to any team as well.

Missed this my man, and I was hoping for the same. I always feel like it's idiotic for teams like that to progress, since they ruin the games and won't make it to the final anyway. Emery will still be disbelieving his luck he landed the easier team in the semis. I really think it's written in the stars for Villa so it's theirs to lose, you're right.

P.S. I did see the match vs Chelsea and they did eventually drop points but that's to Chelski! No one left in Conference is half as talented.

[morvillz7z]

I've a little something on Fiorentina/Brugge match, expect to see goals.

Had the chance to watch Brugge's first half vs PAOK (2nd leg), an attacking team, extremely dangerous/lethal counters. They can absolutely hurt Fiorentina, and i'm sure they'll have opportunities to do so. Domestically, they are top of the league, having scored 15 goals in their last five matches.

Fiorentina failed to reach the Coppa Italia Final, not doing great in Serie A either. The Conference League final is the only way to save their season, and i'm confident they will go for it. Viktoria Plzen parked the bus in the 1/4 finals, but Brugge is not that type of team, i expect to see end-to-end football. It's been raining in Florence, and the weather forecast for the match is also rain...fast surfaces typically result in more attacking football/goals.

Michael Oliver will referee tonight, BTTS in all six European matches he's been in charge of this season.

https://int.soccerway.com/referees/michael-oliver/60878/

[CLS63]

Missed this my man, and I was hoping for the same. I always feel like it's idiotic for teams like that to progress, since they ruin the games and won't make it to the final anyway. Emery will still be disbelieving his luck he landed the easier team in the semis. I really think it's written in the stars for Villa so it's theirs to lose, you're right.

P.S. I did see the match vs Chelsea and they did eventually drop points but that's to Chelski! No one left in Conference is half as talented.

Aston Villa - Olympiacos match is not even close to my expectation now.    I don't know how but Aston Villa got 2 times behind and it is 2-3. Do these players have their minds busy with thw Premier League or what? They weren't looking like this in the previous rounds. Olympiacos were the last team to make difficulties for them technically. If Olympiacos somehow reach the final I will be sadder for wasting a big chance. Maybe we could have been the one to do this.

Edit: It is 2-4 now. 

[boltz]

And this is why a lot of people are calling this league the Lottery League! Because everything can happen and every game is really hard to guess and everytime we have a lot of surprises during the games ...and today it was no different. Aston Villa vs Olympiakos was that game where an entire planet had 1x or Villa to win and the entire planet lost their betting tickets and I don't know if this is true or not , but they share the same CEO on both teams ? that should not be allowed if that is true.

Then , we had Fiorentina who once again scored a late goal to win the game and has the first chance to reach finals but I won't count out Brugge just yet.

[emrecemsan]

And this is why a lot of people are calling this league the Lottery League! Because everything can happen and every game is really hard to guess and everytime we have a lot of surprises during the games ...and today it was no different. Aston Villa vs Olympiakos was that game where an entire planet had 1x or Villa to win and the entire planet lost their betting tickets and I don't know if this is true or not , but they share the same CEO on both teams ? that should not be allowed if that is true.

Then , we had Fiorentina who once again scored a late goal to win the game and has the first chance to reach finals but I won't count out Brugge just yet.

We really need to be ready for every kind of results in this tournament. I agree with that. This is commonly seen in the Europa League and Conference League both. In the Champions League big surprises happen less often when we compare them. This is why I'm trying to be extra careful while betting on the matches here. I mostly prefer goal bets.

This loss is really a heavy one. Do you think Aston Villa will come back from this? By the way I think even Olympiacos weren't expecting to be this comfortable here.    Lastly the most unexpected final like Brugge v Olympiacos is quite likely to be seen now.

[execijutiere]

Aston Villa lost at home to Olympiakos in the European Conference league.Olympiakos were not at their best throughout the match but made good use of the positions they found.Ayoub El Kaabi scored 3 goals in the match and we can say that it was not easy to win.Aston Villa could not defeat their opponent no matter how dominant they played from the beginning of the match and risked passing the round. It was unlucky that Luiz missed a penalty in the 84th minute.Fenerbahce showed again that they have the potential to win the cup if they had eliminated Olympiakos.I am very angry that we were eliminated by Olympiakos after Ismail Kartal's wrong decisions.

[buwaytress]

Aston Villa - Olympiacos match is not even close to my expectation now.    I don't know how but Aston Villa got 2 times behind and it is 2-3. Do these players have their minds busy with thw Premier League or what? They weren't looking like this in the previous rounds. Olympiacos were the last team to make difficulties for them technically. If Olympiacos somehow reach the final I will be sadder for wasting a big chance. Maybe we could have been the one to do this.

Edit: It is 2-4 now. 

Same here man, same here. It's just really the universe telling me that I don't know football anymore (or I never really did).

You can watch a team, follow them a bit, measure expectations on form, determination, talent, and bookmaker odds -- and then it all goes out the window anyway.

They have nothing to fear in Premier League. They're good enough to lose 2 games and still get Champions League, so I don't understand if that's a distraction. Here and now you can win a trophy.

You know how I feel too about Liverpool. Losing to United who will of course get thrashed by City in FA Cup. And losing to Atalanta who will of course get trashed by Leverkusen. We could have had two amazing finals, but we lost to teams who were, frankly, there to be taken.

I don't know if this is true or not , but they share the same CEO on both teams ? that should not be allowed if that is true.

What on god's blessed earth? I just looked it up -- couldn't find anything about it. One Greek guy owns them and Nottingham Forest... but I don't think they allow a guy to hold two executive positions in football do they?

[CLS63]

Same here man, same here. It's just really the universe telling me that I don't know football anymore (or I never really did).

You can watch a team, follow them a bit, measure expectations on form, determination, talent, and bookmaker odds -- and then it all goes out the window anyway.

They have nothing to fear in Premier League. They're good enough to lose 2 games and still get Champions League, so I don't understand if that's a distraction. Here and now you can win a trophy.

You know how I feel too about Liverpool. Losing to United who will of course get thrashed by City in FA Cup. And losing to Atalanta who will of course get trashed by Leverkusen. We could have had two amazing finals, but we lost to teams who were, frankly, there to be taken.

In this kind of situations we really have nothing to do. Football is really full of surprises and this surprise was a big one as well.    Aston Villa have been nearly everyone's favourite to win the Conference League trophy but now they are on the verge of elimination in the semi finals already. I agree with you about Liverpool too. Everything became upside down for them in such a short time period. I assume we need to get used to this lol.

[boltz]

Can Fiorentina achieve back 2 back conference finals ? I think not. Even if they won last game in the last minute , I don't think they will replicate that tonight against Brugge simply because Brugge on home ground can beat anyone at this point and if I were to place a bet , I would choose Brugge to qualify.

Fiorentina had their chances last year against West Ham and they disappointed a lot.

[SmartCharpa]

Can Fiorentina achieve back 2 back conference finals ? I think not. Even if they won last game in the last minute , I don't think they will replicate that tonight against Brugge simply because Brugge on home ground can beat anyone at this point and if I were to place a bet , I would choose Brugge to qualify.

Fiorentina had their chances last year against West Ham and they disappointed a lot.

I didn't notice that Fiorentina had a late goal in the first leg, I thought the match ended up in a draw because I stopped watching the live when they were playing 2-2. Fiorentina managed to win the first leg with the late goal in the 90+ due to the red card Club Brugge midfielder Raphael Onyedika received in the second half of the game, while Club Brugge played the rest of the minutes without one player. Fiorentina pressured them with 31 shots during the game and took the lead in the first leg.

However, Club Brugge on the other hand they are not the weak team at this point, they are at the top of the Belgium pro league, Fiorentina chance of making it to the final this season is very slim since Club Brugge will host the second leg today. Both teams lost their last leagues game, I think both teams have prepared for today's game, let's see if Fiorentina will make history this season to make it to the final.

[buwaytress]

Who else wants a magic Emery comeback in Piraeus tomorrow? Running out of good games, few teams have anything left to fight for throughout the big leagues, but the last English team standing should provide some fight at least, no?

Can Fiorentina achieve back 2 back conference finals ? I think not. Even if they won last game in the last minute , I don't think they will replicate that tonight against Brugge simply because Brugge on home ground can beat anyone at this point and if I were to place a bet , I would choose Brugge to qualify.

Fiorentina had their chances last year against West Ham and they disappointed a lot.

I thought the same. Belgian teams are sort of my darkhorse in these lower tier cup competitions but I have to say, did not see Fiorentina keeping their flag upright back-to-back.

Still, Brugge is my pick, they'll take this to extra time at the very least and that's my pick in BSFL (if you're following that, and if not, why not?!).

[3meek]

Brugge are showing great football this season, but I think that Fiorentina look stronger... For Brugge of course it is not a big problem to score a goal to equalise, but the main thing for them is not to concede... But I think that both teams will score here and it will be difficult for Brugge in regulation time... Probably Fiorentina will play in the final...

[Palakka]

Brugge are showing great football this season, but I think that Fiorentina look stronger... For Brugge of course it is not a big problem to score a goal to equalise, but the main thing for them is not to concede... But I think that both teams will score here and it will be difficult for Brugge in regulation time... Probably Fiorentina will play in the final...

The match between Brugge and Fiorentina has entered the 70th minute, currently Brugge managed to lead the match with a temporary 1-0 victory over Fiorentina and make the provisional aggregate 3-3, Fiorentina who in the first leg managed to beat Brugge with a narrow score must immediately rise at this time if they do not want to be eliminated at home Brugge, as far as both teams look balanced in possession but I also think if Fiorentina is still not strong enough to be able to Facing Brugge solid defense, Fiorentina, who only need to create one goal in today game, continue to increase the intensity of their attack against De Brugge but so far there have been no chances that can really become goals.

Fiorentina throughout the game continued to put pressure on Brugge defense and they managed to create a total of 16 shots so far but only 1 shot on target, seeing the lack of shots on target created, the Fiorentina coach should be able to find a better solution to be able to dismantle Brugge current defense if they do not want to continue the match to extra time,   From the start I favoured Fiorentina to go to the final and even for now I still have great confidence that Fiorentina will still be able to beat Brugge.

Edit: finally Fiorentina managed to create a goal and  make the score draw 1-1 (3-4) in the 85th minute through penalty kicks, I hope Fiorentina can maintain a draw until the end of the match later.

[BitcoinHunt3r]

Brugge are showing great football this season, but I think that Fiorentina look stronger... For Brugge of course it is not a big problem to score a goal to equalise, but the main thing for them is not to concede... But I think that both teams will score here and it will be difficult for Brugge in regulation time... Probably Fiorentina will play in the final...

Yes, Fiorentina finally managed to equalize the score in the 85th minute while ending the match with an aggregate of 3-4 next we will wait for one more team between Olympiacos and Aston Villa, in the first leg Olympiacos led 4-2 on aggregate and in the second leg Olympiacos will play at home meaning Olympiacos has more chances go to the final even though at first I favored Aston Villa who went to the final. We will see the final results tomorrow and I'm quite interested in both teams to score betting.

[karabiber]

Aston Villa are looking for a miracle against Olympiacos. They lost the first leg at home, conceding four goals. Olympiakos scored in almost every attack in the first leg and El Kaabi was the shining star of the game. Aston Villa, on the other hand, after the defeat in the first leg, suffered a disappointing defeat away to Brighton in the league.

Before this match, it is worth remembering Olympiacos' result against Maccabi Tel Aviv. In that match, both games ended with the away team having the upper hand. Throughout the season Olympiacos has been a team that can score goals but also concede goals, whether home or away. However, Olympiakos are now in the semi-final and I don't think they will make any mistakes. Olympiakos will be the team to go to the final.

[3meek]

Brugge are showing great football this season, but I think that Fiorentina look stronger... For Brugge of course it is not a big problem to score a goal to equalise, but the main thing for them is not to concede... But I think that both teams will score here and it will be difficult for Brugge in regulation time... Probably Fiorentina will play in the final...

Yes, Fiorentina finally managed to equalize the score in the 85th minute while ending the match with an aggregate of 3-4 next we will wait for one more team between Olympiacos and Aston Villa, in the first leg Olympiacos led 4-2 on aggregate and in the second leg Olympiacos will play at home meaning Olympiacos has more chances go to the final even though at first I favored Aston Villa who went to the final. We will see the final results tomorrow and I'm quite interested in both teams to score betting.

To be honest, I was very much surprised that Villa lost at home by such a big score... Today they have a decisive game and need to score at least two goals and not concede... It seems to me that this is a very difficult task for Villa, especially after the first leg... Maybe this match will end in a draw, but I think that Olympiacos will play with Fiorentina in the final...