PSV vs Olympiakos, Europa League Round of 32 Second Leg Preview

PSV vs Olympiakos, 

Europa League Round of 32 Second Leg Preview

By Steve Koubtourou

It's all still to play for in a good few ties in the upcoming second leg of the Europa League round of 32. The competition experienced one of its highest scoring weeks during the knockout phase, as all sixteen ties accumulated a whopping total of 60 goals scored on Thursday night. A true reflection of such a crazy week in Europe in particular was the end to end affair between Greek Champions Olympiakos and Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. Despite Thrylos coming away with a deserved victory, it's not plain sailing for the Piraeus side as they travel to Holland in a hope of doing enough to keep the tie in their favour and reach a consecutive round of 16. So predictably this week I will be doing a preview of the second leg of Olympiakos round of 32 tie against PSV, lovingly touching on the first leg in Piraeus, how both teams performed over the weekend and what Thrylos can expect as they are hosted by the Dutch in the Philips Stadion. 

Previously in Piraeus

For the neutral this would have been a hugely entertaining match up. For me I was biting my nails as the end to end game played way too much with my emotions. The match started as expected, with Olympiakos giving a lot of ball possession to PSV and there was a little bit of anxiety that things would go as they had previously in Europe with Thrylos conceding early. The complete opposite happened however. After winning a free kick in the attacking half of the pitch Valbuena crossed in a fantastic effort which found the head of an unmarked Bouchalakis, to put his side ahead before the ten minute mark. This lead would only last five minutes however as Israeli striker Eran Zahavi was given far too much space on the outside of the Olympiakos box and drilled a shot that came off of Sokratis, catching Jose Sa off guard and giving PSV the equaliser. 

 

This would not dampen the spirits of the Greek side however. With twelve minutes of the half to go, Bruma crossed the ball into the box and after it was deflected back into play, Yan M'Vila connected from outside the box as he has done previously in the league and fired the ball into the net to make it 2-1. The Dutch side retaliated almost immediately, as corner was looped in, once again an unmarked Zahavi equalised again with Sa being unable to keep the ball out of the net. This was not an ideal position to be going into halftime or indeed finish the match, as PSV would be returning home with two vital away goals. This would not be the case thankfully. In added time, after some well worked pressure from El Arabi to win the ball in a dangerous position, the Moroccan international dribbled past the keeper and slotted it home to make it 3-2 and put his side ahead for a 3rd time as the half time whistle blew. 

 

The second half was much more solid defensively from Olympiakos, as the Ethryolefki allowed PSV to keep much of the possession, soak it up and counter to find a 4th goal and a two goal cushion. At first I was baffled to see El Arabi coming off for Kostas Fortounis, as this meant we would not have a striker on the field with 15 minutes of normal time to play. I then learnt to never question the genius of Pedro Martins as a few minutes later the Portuguese manager then made a triple substitution to change the game completely. The introduction of Vrousai, Hassan and Androutsos late on, brought more speed and dynamism to our attack and this was the catalyst to Thrylos scoring goal number four. After an excellent run from Fortounis, the Greek international crossed in a shot that, after a mistaken touch from a PSV defender found the foot of Masouras who cannoned the ball impressively into the back of the net to give Olympiakos the 4-2 victory at home and a comfomfortable two goal lead overall in the time to take away to Holland. 

Both Sides Domestic Performances

Olympiakos 

After a very impressive midweek game, Olympiakos then hosted Aris in the league with the hope to return to winning ways after the disappointing defeat to Panathinaikos. Despite a slightly rotated side it was expected that this team would have enough to get the three points. There was a strange air about this match and the quality overall was rather subdued from both sides despite Olympiakos in the first half being the better side. Thrylos would be dealt a huge blow as Marios Vrousai pulled up injured and was forced off with Mathieu Valbuena coming on at the half hour mark. 

Eventually the deadlock was broken, after touch of class from the French veteran to back pass the ball to Holebas, the left back crossed the ball into the box and after some commotion the ball found Androutsos. The versatile right back smartly passed to Fortounis who rifled the ball past a number of Aris players and the keeper to make it 1-0. More trouble came for Thrylos towards the end of half time. Both centre backs attempted to clear the ball of their line to prevent the Kitrinomavri from equalising and as the Greek international cleared it with his head, Semedos foot connected with his jaw and Sokratis clattered into the net and was looking rather groggy as he attempted the finish the first half. He would be subbed off at the start of the second half for Oleg. 

 

As the game pressed on Olympiakos clearly were looking to protect their lead and players from further harm and with every attack came more missed chances to score from Hassan. Aris eventually seized their chances after a defensive mistake led to a goal scoring opportunity, Jose was forced off his line and mistakenly fouled Mancini and conceded a penalty in the process. There was only one man to step up and to take this and it was written that it would be former Olympiakos legendary goal scorer, Kostas Mitroglou. The Greek international comfortably sent Sa the wrong way and did not celebrate his first goal back in Greek football. The match ended 1-1 a piece with the points gap once again lessened slightly in the Greek Super League.     

 

PSV 

The title chasing PSV returned home, after the disappointing loss in Europe, to host Vitesse in the Eredivisie. A few minutes after kick off however the PSV found themselves a goal down early, as Vitesse scored through Armando Broja. Despite a hat full of chances PSV went into half time 0-1 down at home and looked a tad hungover from midweek. Eventually however, six minutes after the hour mark PSV found their leveller through star forward Donyell Malen. PSV continued to press their opponents and searched for a winner. With four minutes of normal time to go substitute Mario Gotze scored a brace to give his side the much needed victory before they hosted the Greek champions in the Netherlands.  

 

Injuries and Suspensions

PSV

To briefly touch on injuries and any suspensions for both teams, let's start with the home side. PSV saw the return of Mario Gotze to the side in Olympiakos last encounter, he also came on as a substitute and scored the brace that won his side the game over the weekend. Mohammed Ikattaren is doubtful due to illness. Olivier Boscagli is also uncertain with a head injury. Cody Gakpo looks likely to be out until mid March.

 

Olympiakos 

Thrylos have a mix of returning players and fresh injuries. Vrousai is the big loss for the team ahead of this tie. As said before he pulled up injured during the game against Aris and it was feared at first that he had sustained the dreaded ACL injury. Thankfully it was nothing as serious as that but he will be out for about six weeks and will miss the 2nd leg tie. Sokratis apparently has not sustained anything serious after he was subbed off at half time over the weekend. He sustained a bruised shoulder and jaw and might start depending on if he is fully fit. Bruma was a doubt at first to play on Thursday but it has recently been made apparent that the Portuguese winger will be fully fit for the game.    

Prediction

To use a common phrase quite simply, we are not out of the woods yet. Despite a two goal lead being a fairly comfortable gap to take to Holland, I much like other supporters of Olympiakos know all too well that this means nothing when it comes to Thrylos playing in Europe. That is not to say that I am not confident in this team's abilities. Even with a couple of patchy league results recently we showed our class last week in an imperfect but still spirited performance. Much the same will be needed travelling away from home and Pedro Martins men need to not be complacent of their current lead. PSV still boast a lot of attacking threat so the defence needs to be cautious and be as solid as they were during the second half of the first leg in Piraeus. 

I imagine we will start in the 4-3-3 again which was well deployed previously and most importantly of all the team needs to go for the win, not settle on a draw or a loss but go through on aggregate, A WIN. It boosts the teams confidence if you assert yourselves on the European stage and it will also help Thrylos return to form domestically if the side can progress to the round of 16 once more. PSV are the ones who need to score in this game and like many people have said online, Olympiakos need to take advantage of the spaces they will undoubtedly leave at the back for the Ethryolefki to counter attack and score. I predict and hope that Olympiakos perform as they did last week and come away with a 1-2 victory, dumping the Dutch out of the Europa League and progressing onwards and upwards, to the next round.

Hellas Football 

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