💫 Olympiacos stun Aston Villa in UECL semi-final; Fiorentina pip Brugge | OneFootball

The first leg of the Europa Conference League semi-finals got underway on Thursday.

Here’s what went down.

Villa facing uphill battle

Scorers: Watkins 45+1′, Diaby 53′; El Kaabi 18′, 29′, (PEN) 56′, Hezze 67′

Aston Villa face an uphill challenge to reach the Europa Conference League final after a first-leg reversal against Olympiacos.

Unai Emery’s side appeared to have taken the lead through Leon Bailey’s header but it was disallowed for Clément Lenglet’s foul on Vicente Iborra in the build-up.

They were soon behind as Ayoub El Kaabi put the visitors ahead by firing into the roof of Robin Olsen’s net following a defence-splitting pass from Chiquinho.

The Morocco international doubled his tally shortly before the half-hour mark after bringing down Daniel Podence’s ball over the top before slotting home.

Ollie Watkins revived hope for the Villa Park crowd by halving the deficit shortly before the interval with an added-time strike after being played in by Moussa Diaby.

Diaby drew the hosts level early in the second half when he met Bailey’s downline pass before beating Konstantinos Tzolakis at his near post.

But parity lasted all of three minutes as El Kaabi claimed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after Panagiotis Retsos’ header was blocked by Douglas Luiz’s raised arm.

Santiago Hezze piled on the misery with a deflected long-range effort that deflected off Ezri Konsa to wrongfoot stand-in goalkeeper Olsen.

A potential lifeline presented itself for Villa in the 84th minute when David Carmo fould Jhon Durán but Luiz crashed his penalty effort against the outside of the post.

Fiorentina take late upper hand

Scorers: Sottil 5′, Belotti 37′, Nzola 90+1′; Vanaken (PEN) 17′, Thiago 63′

Fiorentina required a late winner to nudge them ahead of Club Brugge in their semi-final at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

The hosts took the lead inside five minutes through Riccardo Sottil’s stunning curling effort from the edge of the penalty area.

Hans Vanaken pulled the visitors level from the spot after VAR review deemed that Cristiano Biraghi had handed the ball in the build-up.

Vincenzo Italiano’s side restored their dominance just 20 minutes after being pulled level with Andrea Belotti’s shot on the turn.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men on the hour mark as Raphael Onyedika received his marching orders after successive yellow cards in three minutes.

Momentum swung the Belgians’ way as Igor Thiago pounced on Michal Skóraś’ lofted downfield punt before firing home from a tight angle.

But M’bala Nzola tipped the balance for La Viola with a sweeping finish in added time after his initial effort cannoned back off the woodwork.