Olympiacos have a chance to become the first Greek club to win a European trophy in Wednesday’s Europa Conference League final, but they face a Fiorentina side still smarting from their defeat in last season’s decider.
Jose Luis Mendilibar, who took charge of Olympiacos in February, is hoping he can repeat his achievements from last season when he became Sevilla manager late in the campaign and led them to victory in the Europa League.
“The whole scenario is very similar,” Mendilibar said in an interview with UEFA.
“Sevilla were in a relegation battle, we weren’t here at Olympiacos, but expectations here are sky high and we weren’t meeting them.
“We couldn’t win the league but we could win in Europe, like we did at Sevilla.”
Olympiacos began the season in the Europa League, but exited at the group stage and Mendilibar’s first game in charge was at the beginning of their Conference League run, a knockout-round playoff win over Ferencvaros. Now he is hoping to make history with the club.
“It would be amazing. We’d go down in Olympiacos and Greek football history,” the manager said.
“We know it’ll be very tough against an Italian side who compete at the top, but you never know in finals, they’re anyone’s game.”