Olympiacos have a ‘battle-plan’ in place to beat Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League this evening to ensure they can head into the second leg of the clash out in front.
That’s according to Greece’s Sport 24, who say Jose Luis Mendilibar and his team have a set up worked out to ensure they can take a ‘decisive step’ towards the final.
The Greek giants take on Aston Villa at Villa Park this evening in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final clash.
They are very much the underdogs in the game, at least according to most, given the superb performances Unai Emery has gotten out of Aston Villa this season, with them pushing to qualify for the Champions League from the Premier League.
The plan for Olympiacos, then, is to either take the lead against Villa or ‘stay standing’ in this first-leg clash so they can go back to their own stadium still in the mix.
They know that their own ground ‘will be packed’ and presumably hostile, as it usually is in Greece, and believe that could then help push them to a ‘historic’ final for the club.
There is no plan for Mendilibar to change his tactics, despite coming up against ‘one of the top teams’ in England.
He is likely to employ a three-man midfield, with two of those positions already filled and the third spot yet to be decided and a 4-3-3 formation overall.
“We can’t change our style, we’re going to be ourselves and we want to be as good as ever. We can’t change anything we’ve done so far,” he said at his press conference.
“For us to have come this far means we’ve done something right. Therefore, we will follow the same path and all we can think of is to improve it, but not to change anything.”
