Aston Villa vs Olympiacos

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On Thursday night, Aston Villa will host Olympiacos for the first leg of their Europa Conference League last-four match at Villa Park, marking their first-ever hosting of a European semi-final in forty-two years.

Both Villa and Olympiacos needed penalties to move from the quarterfinals; Villa defeated Lille, while Olympiacos defeated Fenerbahce.

With three Europa League championships and two runners-up medals to his name, Unai Emery has an incredible European record. After a thrilling two-leg match against Lille two weeks ago, he is now aiming for Conference League triumph in his first full season with Aston Villa.

The French team Lille had a 2-1 first-leg advantage against the Lions, but Matty Cash pulled the game to a tight draw. Emiliano Martinez made two outstanding saves on penalty kicks to help Villa win 4-3 in the shootout.

Villa's run of six games without a loss in all competitions has been punctuated by Premier League draws against Brentford and Chelsea, when they let two-goal leads to slip. The most recent tie occurred last weekend at home against Chelsea, despite the fact that they were ahead at the break.

Despite this, Emery's team is still on track to play in the Champions League the next season as they now rank fourth in the Premier League standings, seven points ahead of fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur, who have two games remaining but just suffered a defeat to rivals Arsenal.

Although Villa has never faced Greek competition, they will fancy their chances of securing a positive first-leg result on Thursday as they boast a 100% record across six home matches in this season's competition; they have also failed to score in just one of their last 31 European home games. Villa's ability to balance European and domestic duties will be put to the test once more over the next seven days.

After a 3-3 draw over two legs in the quarterfinals, Olympiacos defeated Turkish team Fenerbahce 3-2 on penalties to advance to their first-ever UEFA club tournament semi-final.

The Red-Whites lost the second leg 1-0 in Istanbul, but similarly to their victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the round prior, they won the penalty shootout because of the heroics of goalie Konstantinos Tzolakis, who stopped three penalties to spare the blushes of Youssef El-Arabi and Rodinei, who missed from 12 yards.

Jose Luis Mendilibar took command of Olympiacos in mid-February, and since then, he has won 12 of his 17 games in management of the team in all competitions. Last weekend, the team's triumph over Lamia in the Greek Super League helped them extend their winless streak to seven games.

47-time Super League champions Olympiacos, who are now behind in a four-team race for the championship, need to set aside their domestic responsibilities and concentrate on the Conference League. Mendilibar, who guided Sevilla to the Europa League championship the previous season, will have the responsibility of leading the Red-Whites to victory in their difficult first-leg matchup at Aston Villa.

Olympiacos has only won three of its previous 19 European excursions to England, most recently losing 1-0 at West Ham United in the Europa League group stage in November of last year. The team's three wins during this run have all come against Arsenal, so success in Birmingham might be difficult.