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Aston Villa captain John McGinn says his team have a ‘mountain to climb’ in Athens next week after slumping to a 4-2 first-leg defeat by Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semi-final - but they are ‘more than capable’ of doing so.

It was a poor performance summed up by Douglas Luiz’s second-half penalty miss. Villa had fought back to 2-2 after the Piraeus team raced into an early two-goal lead. 

But then Moroccan striker Ayoub El Kaabi completed his hat-trick and Santiago Hezze struck from range for 4-2.

Unai Emery’s side have left themselves with work to do in the away leg next Thursday if they are to book their place in the competition’s final - which is also in the Greek capital. But skipper McGinn says Villa have not given up yet.

‘We have a mountain to climb but we know we're capable,’ said the Scotsman.