Olympiacos stunts at Villa in spectacle, ten Club Brugge narrowly lose | Football

Villa and Olympiacos made it a spectacle in Birmingham. Ayoub El Kaabi gave the neutral viewer the most pleasure with a hat trick. The Moroccan attacker had already scored twice within half an hour.

The home team came alongside through Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby, but the joy at Villa Park was short-lived. El Kaabi scored his third goal of the evening with a striking penalty, after which Santiago Hezze brought the margin back to two goals.

Douglas Luiz had the chance to score the tying goal in the final phase, but the Brazilian shot his penalty against the post. Villa, which was still too strong for Ajax in the eighth finals, must make every effort in Greece next week to avoid elimination.

Club Brugge narrowly lost the first leg against Fiorentina 3-2. Coach Ronny Deila’s team thus has some prospect of the first European final spot for a Belgian club in 31 years. Royal Antwerp lost the final of the European Cup II to Parma in 1993.

Fiorentina had the desired lead after 45 minutes. The Italian club had scored through Riccardo Sottil and Andrea Belotti. In between, Hans Vanaken was accurate from 11 meters on behalf of the away team.

Club Brugge’s Raphael Onyedika received two yellow cards in a short time after the break, meaning the away team had to play with ten men. Still, the visitors made it 2-2 thanks to a nice goal from Igor Thiago on a counter.

The match seemed to end 2-2, but Fiorentina’s final offensive had an effect in injury time. M’Bala Nzola was allowed to shoot in after a dangerous situation in the penalty area of ​​Club Brugge. Defender Björn Meijer played the entire game for the Belgian team.