Manchester City vs Olympiakos, Champions League Build Up

Manchester City vs Olympiakos, Champions League Build Up 

By Steve Kountourou

As the halfway point of the Champions League Group stages looms, it's crunch time for a number of teams who are looking to cement themselves in their respective groups, whether it be sealing a round of 16 place, or battle it out for a place in the Europa League round of 32, or even, all of the above. This is certainly the case for Olympiakos in group C. With 3 points from two games, the Greek champions have a tough task of claiming their first 2nd place finish in seven years after their mistakes were the difference in a 2-0 defeat to group rivals FC Porto. 

It does not get much easier from here either as, over both match day 3 and 4, Thrylos will face their toughest task of the season yet, the Premier League financial behemoth, Manchester City. Top of the group and out right favourites to stay as such, City will be looking to make it three wins out of three as Olympiakos travel to Manchester for the 1st of the two games between both sides. For Pedro Martins men it'll be a monumental task to get anything from this away fixture especially, but as I always say, in football, anything is possible. So for this week's build up blog, I will be taking a dive into what has happened over the last week for both teams, in Europe, domestically, with squad updates in between and then my final thoughts and predictions at the end. Aren't you lucky? Let's take a look.

Last Time... In the Champions League 

Olympiakos

After the late winner in Piraeus vs Marseille in Match Day 1, with a goal via the Egyptian Zlatan, Ahmed Hassan, Olympiakos were riding high, travelling to Porto for their second Champions League fixture. The expectation was simple. This would be a much tougher task there the first match, but it was realistic to hope for a positive result, despite Mady Camara still out and for defensive wall Ousseynou Ba also unavailable with Covid19. But much like previous encounters with the likes of Tottenham and Wolves, individual mistakes cost Thrylos the match, with a terrible backward pass from Bouchalakis, which the Dragons pounced on and a low cross was slotted home by Fabio Vieira. 

After the goal, Olympiakos dominated in chances and possession but could not finish any of their attempts on goal. After half time the Piraeus side continued where they left off and at times looked close to an equaliser, but eventually Porto made changes and swung the match in their favour once more. After Olympiakos too made changes, bringing on, Vingare and Bruma and Pepe, their momentum and shape started to crumble and Porto got their second goal of the game in the last 15 minutes with a powerful header from former PAOK player Sergio Olivera, a doubly tough pill to swallow. Despite positives to take from the game, like Cisse having a good game in defence, chance creation still being high and a good to see Olympiakos dominate games in Europe, this does not fill the massive hole of the fact that this team needs to convert those chance, individual mistakes cannot keep happening in Europe and their is still players that need to jell in the side before bringing them on, in a game Thrylos needed something from, but left Portugal with nothing. 

Manchester City 

For City it was a very different story going into Match Day 2. Despite a number of key injuries in their forward line, the sky blues dominated this match against a Marseille side who looked rather out of their depth. A second goal in two games for Ferran Torres in the first 20 minutes gave his side the best possible start. After half time the game slowed down with City content with their lead and OM struggling to create anything meaningful. 

Eventually the Citizens doubled their lead 15 minutes for time thanks to Ilkay Gundogan and a 3rd five minutes later from Raheem Sterling to cap off a strong showing from the group leaders away in Marseille. The result means that Man City have given themselves a comfortable gap at the top of the table and look very unlikely to be removed from their perch. For Marseille, the result meant they are currently rooted to the bottom of the table with results against both Olympiakos and Porto a must if they have any hope of at the very least, reaching the Europa League round of 32. 

 

How Both teams fared in the League 

Olympiakos 

After the midweek disappointment, Pedro Martins rotated the team to rest key players for the upcoming clash with Man City, and to give a number of players their league debuts, including Pepe, Vinagre, Drager and Bruma. Despite some encouraging signs in the first half, Thrylos was still unable to properly assert themselves in the first 45 minutes against an Apollon Smyrni side, who caught their superior opponents a number of the times on the counter and looked dangerous. The first half goal drought for the champions continued going into half time, which prompted Martins to bring off both Fortounis and Bruma, the latter of whom had made some dangerous runs but still not quite enough to create anything meaningful.

 

With the side switching to a 4-4-2, Mathieu Valbuena and El Arabi joined the fray as the side immediately looked more confident with their introduction. Drager at right back who was in for Rafinha, was the stand out of the new signings in this game with his great performance likened to former Olympiakos player Omar Elabdellaoui. Eventually, a number of close chances and good saves from Apollon goalkeeper Davino Verhulst, Thrylos finally found their first goal, passed the hour mark as a corner was crossed in and a deflected shot the foot of Hassan, who does he does best and slotted it home from close range. 

There was a check from VAR as there was thought to be a foul on an Apollon player in the build up to the goal but it stood. Minutes later, after a shot was well saved by Jose Sa, Olympiakos went on the break with Masouras low cross from the left finding Hassan, whose shot deflected off the keeper into the net to make it 2-0 for his side. A performance that both showed that the Greek Champions still have gaping improvements to make over the coming weeks, but still a win is the right result to get some positivity back for Thrylos before their trip to Manchester.  

 

Man City 

Pep Guardiola's side, after their much more positive midweek in Europe, travelled to Sheffield United, who are having a bit of a hangover after their impressive return to the Premier League last season. After the first 28 minutes of City dominating in both possession and attempts, they finally found an opener. Kevin De Bruyne made a low pass from the left which found right back Kyle Walker, 35 yards out, who powered in a long range effort against his boyhood club to give his current side the 1-0 lead at Bramall Lane, with Walker mutely celebrating as a mark of respect. 

The sky blues continued their domination of the match and although they carved up the blades throughout the rest of the game they were unable to find a second goal to put the match out of site. Still, City were able to hold onto a relatively comfortable 0-1 away victory, before they were visited this Tuesday night by Olympiakos.

  

Injuries and absences 

It is fairly straightforward for both sides, who is available to play this Tuesday night, and who is either injured or not selected.

Olympiakos 

Thrylos supporters were met with some huge news over the weekend, as Mady Camara has been given the ok to be selected, having overcome Covid19. Hillel Soudani has also rejoined the squad for the trip to the UK, after testing negative. Ba however, is still unavailable and out with the novel illness so Cisse will once again take his place. There are also question marks as to why Kostas Fortounis was not selected, despite playing in the league last weekend and is fully fit. There are rumours that manager Pedro Martins, was dissatisfied with the Greek internationals performance and this is his way of getting him to step up his game if he wants to be in the squad. 

Man City 

Man City on the other hand, have no cases of Covid at the time of writing. But legendary striker Sergio Aguero and fellow forward Gabriel Jesus are both still out with injuries and will be unlikely to feature against the Greek side. 

Outro and Prediction 

To finish, as said at the beginning of this blog, this is a really big ask for Olympiakos to get any positive result away from the group leaders. City, despite losing both their main forwards still have attacking talent and world class players all over the pitch. They have improved defensively over the past month and will punish mistakes of their opponents almost every time. If Thrylos can rely on the counter attack,the industriousness Camara brings to the side when he plays and actually puts away their chance, as rare as they may be to have any hope of salvaging the points needed to push for that oh so sweet round of 16 place. Unlike the first two Champions League predictions, I shall resign to my pessimism, and say that it will be a 2-0 City win at the Etihad Stadium. 

Hellas Football 

Follow @stevekountourou