Ayoub El Kaabi was the hero as Olympiacos claimed their first-ever major European honor with a dramatic 1-0 extra-time win over Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa Conference League final.
After nothing could separate the sides for 90 minutes, talisman El Kaabi scored the 116th-minute winner at the AEK Arena to become the first Greek side to win Europe’s top competition.
Fiorentina fell again at the last hurdle of this competition and La Viola also lost to West Ham in the Prague showpiece last season.
However, success belonged to Olympiacos and head coach Jose Luis Mendilibar, who secured continental glory in subsequent seasons after last year’s Europa League triumph with Sevilla.
Daniel Podence tested Pietro Terracciano early on before Fiorentina thought they had opened the scoring just nine minutes into the final.
Cristian Biraghi’s cross crept into Konstantinos Tzolakis’ bottom right corner, but Nikola Milenkovic was ruled out for offside due to his position in front of the Olympiacos goalkeeper.
Although the celebrations were cut short, Fiorentina continued with more attacking momentum throughout the first half.
However, La Viola’s dominance paid little dividends as Giacomo Bonaventura – their goalscorer in last season’s final defeat to West Ham – wasted his best chance, firing from close range at Tzolakis after 21 minutes.
Chances remained elusive after the break, but Fiorentina went close again in the 69th minute when Dodo found Christian Kouame, whose effort was pushed away by Tzolakis.
Olympiacos almost struck 11 minutes later when Iborra met Francisco Ortega’s free-kick, but the 36-year-old’s header missed Terracciano’s right-hand post and the final was headed for extra time.
Mendilibar had earlier introduced former Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic, who almost returned to haunt his old club in the 96th minute when he cut inside before unleashing a shot that Terracciano parried.
The penalty shoot-out probably came when Tzolakis denied Jonathan Ikone until El Kaabi came ghost-like to nod in Santiago Hezze’s cross with just four minutes remaining to send the Olympiacos fans into ecstasy after a lengthy VAR review for offside in Athens.
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