Ayoub El Kaabi’s extra-time header saw Olympiacos become the first Greek club to win a major European trophy at senior level after they beat Fiorentina 1-0 in the Europa Conference League final.
In a game played at the home of their city rivals AEK Athens, a tight contest looked to be heading for penalties, with few genuine openings materialising for either side over the course of the match.
That was until the latest crucial contribution from El Kaabi – the top scorer across men’s senior European competitions this season – who niftily nodded home Santiago Hezze’s enticing 116th-minute delivery from close range.
While this represented a second successive season of continental delight for the Erythroleykoi’s boss, José Luis Mendilibar, who led Sevilla to the 2023 Europa League, this was a night that brought more agony for Vincenzo Italiano’s Fiorentina.
The Serie A outfit lost out in the final of this competition a year ago, too, as Jarrod Bowen’s late goal earned West Ham United a memorable 2-1 victory in Prague.
Once more, the margins were agonisingly fine on a night of relative pragmatism.
The attacking capabilities that both of these sides had displayed en route to this final made its cautious pattern surprising. With what was on the line, though, it was perhaps understandable that tension appeared to take hold.
Daniel Podence’s early effort for Olympiacos, which was sharply tipped wide by Pietro Terracciano, and Christian Kouamé’s scuffed attempt midway through the second half, which brought a neat save out of Konstantinos Tzolakis, were the nearest either team came to an opener prior to extra-time.
Former Fiorentina forward Stevan Jovetić came close five minutes into the additional 30 when the Montenegro international’s guided effort from the edge of the box was palmed wide of the right-hand post by Terracciano.
La Viola substitute Jonathan Ikoné’s sliced left-footed attempt was then pushed away by Tzolakis, before El Kaabi notched the winner.
A moment that saw Olympiacos added to Roma and West Ham as the winners of this competition, which only came into being in 2021/22.
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Olympiacos and Mendilibar make history
What a night this was for the Erythroleykoi. The Piraeus-based club will celebrate their 100th birthday in 2025, an occasion that will surely now be made all the sweeter by their newly-achieved status as the first Greek side to win a major European club competition at senior level.
Doing so at the home ground of local rivals AEK Athens will have likely made it additionally special for many. Prior to Wednesday, Panathinaikos – who were beaten 2-0 by Ajax at Wembley in the 1971 European Cup final – were the only Greek team to have featured in such a match.
Another element that makes Olympiacos’ achievement all the more notable is that it comes at the end of a season where they’ve had four managers. Such chopping and changing, while hardly ideal, will likely feel worthwhile now, given it led to Mendilibar’s appointment in February.
Diego Martinez, Carlos Carvalhal and Sotiris Silaidopoulos – the latter of whom was in charge for a single game on an interim basis and remains on the club’s staff as first-team assistant coach and under-19 head coach – had each been in the hot seat during 2023/24 prior to the current manager’s arrival.
The 63-year-old Spaniard led Sevilla to their record-extending seventh Europa League triumph last May, as José Mourinho’s Roma were beaten on penalties in Budapest, but he was sacked by the Andalusian club in October.
This latest piece of continental silverware saw him become only the second manager to have won a major European trophy in consecutive seasons with different clubs – after Rafael Benítez won the UEFA Cup with Valencia in 2004 and the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005 – and served to further cement the sense that he is one of coaching’s great late bloomers.
A neat summary was offered by journalist Sid Lowe’s post on X (formerly Twitter): 'For the first 29 years of his coaching career, Mendilibar had not taken charge of a single European game. In the last year, he’s won two European trophies.'
Following his arrival in Piraeus, Ferencváros, Maccabi Tel Aviv, via an astounding comeback after a 4-1 first-leg defeat at home, Fenerbahçe and Aston Villa were all beaten over two legs in the knockout stages.
An appropriately storied path to what may go down as the greatest night in Olympiacos’ near 100-year history.
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Ruthless El Kaabi decisive again
It always felt likely that, if there was to be a winning moment prior to penalties, the Morocco forward would provide it. So it proved.
It doesn’t feel unreasonable to say that the 30-year-old has been a revelation this season. His 14 goals in European competition this term (16 when including qualifying) are unmatched in the senior men’s game.
That this has been his first season in European club football, having joined Olympiacos in August 2023 on a free transfer from Al-Sadd of Qatar, makes his feat additionally admirable.
Once more, his shrewdness, physicality and persistent threat came to the fore here.
He’d had a largely quiet evening prior to his goal but, as is so often the case with effective strikers, he was razor sharp when an opening materialised.
After Nikola Milenković had done well to reach André Horta’s delivery ahead of him – with referee Artur Dias waving away Fiorentina’s claims that the centre-back had been fouled in the process – El Kaabi reset himself as Hezze prepared to swing in a cross of his own from the left.
It was quite the ball, and the No.9 kept himself just about onside before he backed into the six-yard box, holding off Luca Ranieri as he went, and niftily angled his frame to send a diving header into the bottom-left corner.
A worthy match-winner, who delivered the key moment in familiarly efficient fashion.
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Fiorentina left to rue missed chances
For a second year in a row, Italiano’s team were on the wrong end of a dramatic conclusion to the final of this competition.
The wait for a first European trophy since their 1961 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup success goes on for a club who have now lost their five other continental finals.
They have several hard-luck stories to their name in such matches, and this is an evening that will likely be categorised similarly. That, in itself, is a reflection of the promise they offered, though.
It could easily have been different. Giacomo Bonaventura saw a pair of first-half efforts well kept out by Tzolakis, who went on to make good saves from both Kouamé and Ikoné.
Ikoné then came agonisingly close to equalising in stoppage time at the end of extra time when an excellent one-two gave him a chance to shoot from close-range, but David Carmo got across to make an excellent block.
They registered 54% possession and an Expected Goals of 1.13, which was nearly double Olympiacos’ 0.65, but those statistics don’t earn the silverware, of course.
This was cruel, once more, on the team from Florence. To an extent, though, you could feel it coming.
As the clock ticked down, no one in their colours offered quite the same sense of menace as El Kaabi.
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Response now key for La Viola
This almost goes without saying, but finding a way to productively frame this series of events in order head into 2024/25 with renewed vigour and motivation now appears the key challenge for Italiano and co.
The time and change of scenery that the summer – which will be dominated for some by tournament football with their national teams – can offer may help in that regard.
They actually have the one remaining Serie A match of '23/24 to play first, at Atalanta, the newly-crowned Europa League winners, on Sunday. Having the chance to take to the field again before the season's out may prove healthy.
Reaching a European final in two successive campaigns is a considerable achievement. That may become easier to appreciate and build on as the rawer emotions dissipate over the coming days and weeks.
The fact remains, though, that finals aren’t there to be lost – particularly for those operating at the top levels of the game. Fiorentina will have another shot at this competition next season and will doubtless want to go one better.
They’re evidently not far off, but that crucial streak of conviction, ruthlessness or even luck in the critical stages of these one-off matches appears to be the variable that they need to shift in their favour.
