ANKARA
Greek team Olympiacos will take on last season’s runners-up, Italian Serie A club Fiorentina, in the UEFA Europa Conference League final on Wednesday.
The Greek side will fight for their maiden UEFA trophy, while the Italian club aim for their second UEFA title after the 1961 Cup Winners’ Cup, at Agia Sophia Stadium in Athens.
Olympiacos
Olympiacos have followed a hard-fought path in this season’s competition.
After finishing the 2024 Europa League Group A third, following West Ham United and Freiburg, they joined the Conference League.
In the knockouts, they first knocked Hungarian side Ferencvaros out with a 2-0 aggregate. Then they eliminated Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv with a 7-5 aggregate in the round of 16.
They clashed with Turkish side Fenerbahce in the quarterfinals, only to eliminate them with a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Olympiacos reserved their final ticket by casting English club Aston Villa aside with 6-2 aggregate.
Moroccan attacker Ayoub El Kaabi, who left Türkiye’s Hatayspor in March 2023 after the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquakes to join Qatari club Al-Sadd, is the most standing out player in the Greek side’s squad with his 32 goals and three assists in 49 appearances in all competitions.
The Greek team will fight for their maiden UEFA trophy in the final held in their homeland.
Fiorentina
Italian side Fiorentina made a good start to their European campaign in the 2023-24 season.
After finishing the Conference League Group F as leaders without a loss, they took Israeli team Maccabi Haifa down with a 5-4 aggregate in Round of 16.
In the quarterfinals, they eliminated Czech side Viktoria Plzen with a 2-0 aggregate to advance to the semifinal round against Belgium’s Club Brugge.
Fiorentina passed the semifinals with a 4-3 aggregate to secure their place in the final.
Three Argentine players have become a vital trio for the Italian Serie A side this season; defender Lucas Martinez Quarta along with attackers Nicolas Gonzalez and Lucas Beltran. This trio has contributed to more than 33 goals for Fiorentina this season.
Being last season’s runners-up after losing to English team West Ham United 2-1, Fiorentina will play to clinch the trophy in their second consecutive final.
