THE TIE AIN’T OVER UNTIL IT IS OMAR!
OMAR Richards has warned Olympiakos: “Aston Villa will hit us hard.”
The London-born leftback has told his team-mates that Unai Emery’s Champions League-chasers will tonight believe they can still qualify for the Conference League final.
The Greek side grabbed a surprise 4-2 win in last week’s semifinal first leg and are chasing a first
European crown themselves.
But Richards (26), on loan for the season from Nottingham Forest, has already explained to his colleagues what they can expect.
Great
He said: “We know what Villa will bring. We know it’s only the first part of the tie — and that they’re going to come out even stronger in the second leg, so we’ll be ready for that. “There’s a big job to be done. “It was a great achievement to win the first one. We played with no fear. We came out with a good plan, stuck to it and had early success in the game. “We grew in confidence, made it difficult for them and, when we had our chances, we took them. “We can’t say they underestimated us. We played well. “That two-goal lead was very important. Having that will help us a lot. “And sure, we’re at home but they’re going to come at us strongly. “Everyone’s excited now and we’re looking forward to playing at home. “It will be difficult but we’ll have our fans with us and we’ll use them to get behind us. We know how good the atmosphere is in the Karaiskakis Stadium.
“We made history in that first leg but there’s still a hurdle to overcome.”
However Villa’s players, who need one more victory in the Premier League to make sure of Champions League qualification, believe the comeback is on.
Douglas Luiz missed a late penalty that would have reduced the arrears and the action swung from end-to-end in a game that Richards admitted was ‘crazy’.
Villa’s France international Moussa Diaby (inset) was in bullish mood.
He said: “We have the mentality of winners and I want to get to the final.
“We’ll go there full of energy and fight to the end, I know that Villa will do this. We’ll win there, for sure.
Play
“It’s a good atmosphere in the stadium. I want to play in the game and do my best to motivate my team-mates.”
Olympiakos celebrated on the Villa Park pitch at the final whistle and owner Evangelos Marinakis — who also owns Nottingham
Forest — was pictured afterwards in one of the executive boxes holding four fingers in the air.
Asked if it was a touch premature, Diaby added: “No, I don’t think it was a mistake for them — they won.
“They have to be happy. If we’d won, we’d have done the same.
“What we want is to be celebrating at the end of the second leg. Then, c’est finis. Job done.”