The Atlas Lion snatches the first European title in Greek history
Moroccan sniper Ayoub El Kaabi broke the boredom that dominated his Greek club Olympiacos’ match against Italian Fiorentina, in the final of the European Conference League, and snatched the first continental title for the Greek champion in history.
The goalless draw remained in control of Fiorentina’s “very boring” match against Olympiacos at Hagia Sophia Stadium in Athens, until Ayoub El Kaabi succeeded in scoring the winning goal in the 117th minute of the match, which extended into two extra halves and was decided before heading to penalty kicks.
Olympiacos became the first Greek team to win the European Championship, as it won the title of the third edition of the Conference League, after Roma, which won the first title, and West Ham, champion of the second edition.
On the other hand, the curse still dominates Fiorentina for the second year in a row, after it lost last year’s final in a similar scenario, when it lost to West Ham United of England (2-1), with a fatal goal in the last minute of the match.
In the following lines, Goal monitors the most prominent features from the match between Olympiacos and Fiorentina in the European Conference League final.
Ayoub Al-Kaabi… the hero of the Greek novel
Ayoub El Kaabi deserves to be the hero of the final shot in the coronation of Olympiacos, as he had a great influence on his team and the main reason for their reaching the final, thanks to the 16 goals he scored in the Greek giant’s journey towards the title.
With the decline in the level of the match, which was dominated by a ban on both teams, and while everyone was surrendering to the idea of resorting to penalty kicks to settle the title, the Moroccan lion turned into “Pegasus”, the legendary winged horse in Greek mythology, and scored the fatal goal that will be immortalized in the history of his club and even the history of all Greece.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored 34 goals with Olympiacos this season in various competitions, including 11 goals in his team’s last 9 matches in the European Conference competition, becoming the first Arab player to score 11 goals in the knockout rounds, surpassing Egyptian Mohamed Salah in the 2017-2018 season.
Al-Kaabi’s goal will be immortalized in the final, as he became the second Arab player after Algerian Saeed Benrahma to score in the European Conference final. The strange thing is that the victim was one, the Italian Fiorentina.
Al-Kaabi also became the fourth Arab player to score a goal in a European final, after the Algerian duo Rabah Madjer and Saeed Benrahma, and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah.
Mendelibar..specializes in European titles
There is no doubt that the Spanish Jose Luis Mendilibar, coach of Olympiacos, had a great credit for this victory, as he was able to overcome his Italian opponent, Vincenzo Italiano, with a long-sighted policy, and he was able to close all the outlets to his goal until he succeeded in stinging his opponent with a deadly scenario.
Fate finally smiled at the 63-year-old Spanish man, as he achieved his second title in his career, after winning the European League title last year with Sevilla. The strange thing is that his record of achievements includes only two continental championships.
Mendilibar became the first coach to achieve two European titles for two years in a row, since Frenchman Zinedine Zidane with Real Madrid in the 17-18 Champions League, and the first coach to achieve two different European titles after Portuguese Jose Mourinho with Porto in 2003-2004.
Italiano never learns his lesson!
For the second year in a row, Vincenzo Italiano mishandled the final match of the European Conference League, missing out on the opportunity to claim a European title that was within reach.
Fiorentina was relatively the best on the field, but it did not provide the offensive performance that deserved it to win, and its players lacked offensive boldness, and it seemed as if they had surrendered to the idea of clinching the title on penalty kicks, so they were punished harshly by the landowners.
Tonight’s final was very similar to last year’s final against West Ham United, where the tie dominated the match (1-1) before he received a fatal blow in the last minute of the match, so that Italiano’s fate with Fiorentina was at stake after he lost his third final with the team in various tournaments. .
ظهرت في الأصل على www.goal.com