By Yossi Medina & Eden Roitfarb
The road to Athens is clearer than ever, as the Europa Conference League quarter-finals wrapped up on Thursday.
Here are the best moments from the second leg of matches.
Olympiacos’ players celebrating in Turkey. The final in Athens is only two games away (Photo courtesy: Olympiakos official website)
Tzolakis saved Olympiacos’ dream
The first leg between Fenerbahce and Olympiacos was boiling hot, with the Greeks winning 3-2 in Piraeus.
The second leg in Istanbul was promising from the start, and the excited Sukru Saracoglu Stadium was fully booked, with fans hoping to see the home team reach a European semi-final more than a decade after their last.
And they felt it was possible after an early goal from Irfan Can Kahveci.
From that moment on, each side tried to break the deadlock, but couldn’t do it.
The penalty shoot-out was a head-to/head between the goalkeepers rather than the strikers.
Fenerbahce presented Dominik Livakovic, who brought his experience from the last World Cup with Croatia, while Olympiacos had their own Konstantinos Tzolakis.
After four rounds, Olympiacos led 3-2. Tzolakis had already saved two shots, while Livakovic saved one.
Rodinei took the fifth shot for Olympiacos, knowing that scoring it would be decisive. Livakovic tipped the ball onto the crossbar, it fell down, and still didn’t cross the line.
It was all on an experienced Leonardo Bonucci, who was subbed on during the last minute of extra time solely for his purpose.
He took the shot, but Tzolakis recorded his third save of the night. This time it was worth a semi-final spot.
Olympiacos celebrated in front of their fierce rivals, knowing that their next mission is to reach the final in Athens.
Emi Martinez is the French nightmare, once again
Sometimes, the best football stories have a tendency to repeat themselves.
Storylines that seemed over, suddenly have a new chapter. Tonight, in northern France, it happened again.
Aston Villa visited Lille with a 2-1 lead from the first game, and their Argentinian goalkeeper was welcomed by the local fans with a chorus of boos - tension between the two sides had been building up all week.
The reason? Memories of the 2022 World Cup final, of course, where Argentina beat France on penalties with Martinez in goal, as he produced a series of saves, accompanied by antics and mind-games to mess with the opposing kickers.
And somehow, fate struck again.
Lille won 2-1 on the night. They were leading 2-0 before Villa found a late goal via Matty Cash, pulling the aggregate tie level.
Extra time did not produce any more goals, so penalties it was.
And in penalties, Emi Martinez likes to shine. It’s his comfort zone, and immediately he produced the same mind games, affecting Lille players and fans alike.
He even got a yellow card, his second of the night, but wasn’t sent off as FIFA rules clean the slate after the end of extra time.
Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Andre couldn’t hold their nerves and missed, and Villa scored four of their own to go through.
The Villain of French football celebrates again, this time on enemy territory.
La Viola break Plzen’s defence and hearts
It seemed for a minute, or 90 minutes, that it was virtually impossible to score against Viktoria Plzen.
The second leg between Fiorentina and the Czech side ended 0-0, just like the first leg.
And that result mirrored the previous two games in the round of 16 between Plzen and Servette.
In total, 630 UEFA Europa Conference League minutes have passed since Miroslav Koubek’s men last conceded a goal - a Marin Tomasov goal for Astana in the start of October.
But then, in the second minute of extra time, Nico Gonzalez finally managed to break the deadlock and beat Martin Jedlička with a strong shot from inside the box.
Captain Cristiano Biraghi made it 2-0 after 108 minutes, with a goal on the counter attack to seal the deal.
Viktoria Plzen didn’t end up scoring even once in the knockout stages this year, yet they came so very close to a semi-final spot.
Fiorentina, the usual drama suspects, stressed their fans out once again, but are in the semi-finals for the second straight year.
Dreaming on a second consecutive Conference League final. Fiorentina’s players (Photo courtesy: Fiorentina official X account)
Club Brugge end PAOK run
PAOK demonstrated in the last round that there is no impossible deficit that they can overturn, especially if the return leg in the Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki is anything to go by.
With a 1-0 lead held by Club Brugge, the Greek side hoped to get one back and given another great night in front of the home crowd.
Nevertheless, Ferran Jutgla of Club Brugge had different plans. He scored twice in the first half, giving the Belgian side an aggregate 3-0 lead.
In the round of 16, PAOK scored three times in a single half against Dinamo Zagreb, but this time they couldn’t find the net, and Club Brugge booked their spot in the semi-finals.
Club Brugge has become the first Belgian side to play in a European semi-final since Antwerp did so in the 1993 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Back then, they reached the final. An inspirational moment for Club Brugge?
