Olympiakos European Season Review

 Olympiakos European Season Review

A Real Rollercoaster 

By Steve Kountourou

As Olympiakos bow out of European football once more, the focus now can fully return to the Greek Super League and Thrylos retaining the title as well as the potential for a second consecutive double by winning the Greek Cup. With that being said it is also a time of reflection and remembering some of the best moments from this season's European campaign. The Greek champions in both the Champions League and Europa League were far from perfect and at times looked a bit out of their depth for several different reasons. But one cannot deny the fight and never give up attitude fans of the Ethryolefki witnessed from beginning to end, that reasserted to people the love and passion they have for their club. 

It was amazing to see their players stand toe to toe with teams with superior players on paper and budgets that dwarf the worth of Olympiakos tenfold. So for this week, I will be taking a look back at Thrylos 2020/21 European adventure, for the beginning back before the playoffs, the rather frustrating Champions League group stage, and the improvement in the Europa League knockout stages against PSV before bowing out to regular opponents Arsenal.

Before a Ball was even Kicked and Omonia

Rather than starting at the point you would expect with Olympiakos entrance into Europe I would like to quickly remind you of how the Thrylos found themselves in the Champions League playoffs. Despite returning to the top of Greek football by reclaiming their first Greek Super League title in three years, Olympiakos were only granted a place in the 3rd qualifying round, a position the Champions were used to competing in by this point. They would have had to start their competitive season much earlier than many other clubs, however, with the possibility of playing four qualifying games before even reaching the group stage proper. Thankfully this was not to be however as, thanks to circumstances involving neither Lyon nor Napoli reaching the final of the 2019/20 edition of the competition, Olympiakos were granted a playoff place which meant only two matches stood between them and the group stages. The team standing in their way was Cypriot side Omonia.

 

After finishing top of an unfinished Cyprus First Division campaign, the Nicosia side was granted a place in the qualifiers also, impressively manoeuvring past Legia Warsaw, and Red Star Belgrade respectively before being drawn against Thrylos. While Olympiakos had faulted against Cypriot opposition in their more recent history as well as the Prasini showing themselves as a tough hard-working defensive side, it was expected that Olympiakos would have enough to get past their first European opponent. 

This was not the fast-paced side of the previous campaign, however. Although most of the squad from last season were still ever-present in the starting line up, the gaping holes in both left and right back were evident in the game as a returning Jose Holebas and the addition of seasoned veteran Rafinha both were unable to replicate the dynamism and speed of outgoing Kostas Tsimikas and Omar Elabdellaoui.

Still, despite this rather less spectacular display, and with the understanding of new signings to strengthen the squad still to come, Olympiakos did manage to defeat Omonia over two legs. A 2-0 victory in Piraeus which included a fantastic late strike from El Arabi was followed by the return leg in Nicosia. Thrylos despite being comfortably ahead in the tie were unable to find the killing blow as Omonia goalkeeper Fabiano had an unstoppable performance between the sticks. It was still enough to see the Greek champions reach the group stages of the Champions League once more, as Omonia was forced to settle with Europa League football.

Champions League Group Stage 

 

Upon qualification, via the playoffs, Thrylos found themselves in pot three of the group stage draw. Out of the hat came Porto, Manchester City, Olympiakos themselves, and Marseille in Group C. At first glance, many supporters of the Greek champions believed that there was an outside, if not genuine chance that the Ethryolefki could finish runners up in the group and progress to the round of 16. The minimum expectation certainly was to finish 3rd and qualify for the Europa League round of 32. 

 

The campaign could not have started better for Pedro Martins men. Match Day 1 would see Olympiakos host Ligue 1 side Marseille in Piraeus where Thrylos at times looked strong on the counter and dominated especially in the second half. Eventually, with the introduction of Hassan five minutes from time, the Egyptian Zlatan as he has been dubbed by some would score a late winner in injury time to give his side a 1-0 victory and give the fans a boost for a run to second place. Sadly as we all know, it was far from plain sailing after that. 

 

Match Day 2 would see Olympiakos travelling to Pedro Martin and several Thrylos players, their native country of Portugal to face Liga NOS champions, Porto. Right off the bat, there were a couple of notable absentees in Mady Camara and Ousseynou Ba, both of whom were out upon testing positive for Covid19, that impacted the choice of personnel to play this hugely important fixture. They would be replaced by Andreas Bouchalakis and Pape Abou Cisse respectively. 

It was essential that Olympiakos at least claimed a draw away from home as this match could decide who were favourites to finish 2nd behind Manchester City. This was not to be however as Porto capitalized on their opponent's slow start and a huge error from Bouchalakis which led to the first goal being scored by Fabio Vieira just nine minutes in. This put Thrylos on the back foot from the start and despite their best efforts to get back into the game, they could not convert the huge chances they created to get what could be argued as a deserved equaliser. Former PAOK loanee Sergio Oliveira had other ideas, coming back to bite Olympiakos by scoring with five minutes left of normal time to go, doubling the Dragons lead, and putting the game to bed. A bit of a reality check for the players and supporters that this was going to be a tough European campaign.

 

The doubleheader against Manchester City was more or less seen by many to be two games that Olympiakos would struggle to get anything from. Despite having Camara back for the journey to the North of England Ba was still a huge loss as he was still recovering from Covid19. The other big miss was Kostas Fortounis who did not travel with the squad. Shadows of the previous encounter with Porto came back to haunt the Greek champions as City took an early lead through Ferran Torres to make it 1-0. 

After another slow start Thrylos started to find their footing toward the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second half but simply could not convert their chances. Eventually, the Sky Blues switched it up a gear and took advantage of their opponent's lack of finishing, as well as a star-studded bench, as substitute Gabriel Jesus scored minutes after coming onto the pitch. Cancelo also compounded the Piraeus side's misery and the match finished 3-0 to the home side. 

 

By the time the reverse fixture came around, Olympiakos had become rather depleted with a combination of Covid cases and injury which meant the Ethryolefki entered the game in Piraeus with one registered striker meaning Kostas Fortounis was forced to play as a false nine. Despite a much more solid performance as the team held their shape in a much more defensive formation and the heroics of Jose Sa in goal it was not enough to get anything from the game as City comfortably won 0-1 and Thylos hardly threatened on the attacking front.

 

By this time Porto had mounted a healthy points gap between them and their Greek opponents which meant 2nd was almost out of reach. This meant the last two games of the group stage were vital for Olympiakos to at least secure 3rd place and maybe run Porto close and overtake them on the final fixture on Match Day 6. With that, Thrylos travelled to their final away match of the Group Stage against Marseille with the objective being to end their opponent's hope of overtaking them for the chance to play European football in the new calendar year. The first half went according to plan for the away side, as Mady Camara scored his side's first goal since the first Match Day with a fantastic strike to make 0-1 and put Thrylos in pole position to qualify for the Europa League.

 

The second half however would see the script completely thrown out the window. Early on Cisse tripped Florian Thauvin and upon inspection of VAR, the referee awarded a penalty to OM which was converted by Dimitri Payet to make it 1-1. Twenty minutes later Rafinha handled the ball just outside of the box which was at first given as a free-kick and rightfully so. Then bizarrely the referee awarded a penalty instead despite video evidence clearly showing that the ball had been handled just outside of the area. Payet stepped up once more and scored his second penalty of the night and the match finished 2-1 but with their goal, Olympiakos stayed 3rd on the head to head going into the final game of the group stage.  

 

The last match was crucial for the Greek Champions. After being mathematically knocked out of the running for the Round of 16, the Europa League was a must for Thrylos. Porto, the assured second-place team stood in their way and they needed to dig deep to at least get a result or lose by less to Marseille, who were facing an already qualified Man City. Sadly the final group stage performance was a dower showing at home for Olympiakos. 

An early conceded goal again through a penalty and a late one from Uribe was enough to give Porto a 0-2 away win in Piraeus. The home side thankfully was saved from their sub-par display and still reached the Europa League Round of 32 as OM  were well beaten 3-0. Not how fans of the Piraeus side or the club themselves wanted to stay in Europe for the new year and drastic change to certain areas to the team was needed if Thrylos wanted to progress deeper into Europe's second competition.  

Europa League Entrance and PSV Match Up

After waiting for the entire draw to find out how Olympiakos next opponents were, the discovery that it would be the Dutch side and former European champions PSV received mixed responses from fans. Some saw this as an opportunity to redeem Thrylos rather subdued performance in the Champions League, by playing against a side that was relative of the same level in footballing ability as the Greek Champions and maybe even reach the Round of 16. Others were less optimistic seeing this as a potential chance that could be wasted if reinforcements were not brought in during the January transfer window to bolster an Olympiakos side that sorely lacked the creative spark of the previous 19/20 campaign.

 

As signings such as left-back Oleg Reabciuk, Kenny Lala on the opposite flank, and most impressively of all the coup of bringing Sokratis Papastathopoulos back to Greece reinvigorated the Thrylos faithful that overcoming PSV could become a reality.

 

The first leg started perfectly in Piraeus as a set-piece won by Mathieu Valbuena was well taken into the box and found the head of Bouchalakis who looped it over the keeper and made it 1-0 Olympiakos. It was not long until PSV responded with an equaliser as Zahavi was given far too much space to take the shot ensuing goal. Thrylos continued to abuse the spaces left by their opponents. As the first half drew to a close PSV failed to preasure the ball properly and as the ball was cleared out of the box it was met by Yann M'Vila who connected it and powered the ball home to make it 2-1. 

Once again the Dutch side was able to quickly recover and equalize this time from a corner which Thrylos have struggled to deal with over the past couple of months and Zahavi got his second. In added time Olympiakos continued to press until the bitter end and they were rewarded for their efforts as El Arabi robbed the ball from the defender, cleverly rounded the keeper, and fired his shot into the back of the net to make it 3-2. After the break, Thrylos continued to push for a 4th goal to give them a healthy cushion to take to Holland, while also proving more solid defensively and canceling out many of PSV waves of attacks. Late on after a wave of ingenious changes by Pedro Martins his side, reinvigorated by the player's impact ran at the tired PSV defence and Giorgios Masouras fantastic shot which curled past the keeper gave Olympiakos the 4-2 victory at home.

An unchanged Thrylos side was hosted by PSV in Eindhoven and it was expected that despite a two-goal lead, the first goal would have to crucially come from the Greek side to put the game to bed. This did not go to plan as Olympiakos found themselves 2-0 down at halftime after a Zahavi double in the first half which put PSV ahead in the tie-on goal difference. Too many times have fans of the Ethryolefki seen their side capitulate a lead over two legs to go out of a major tournament and it looked as though history would repeat itself. With the second half came multiple changes and it reinvigorated Olympiakos in the search to put the tie back in their favour. In the 79th minute, Ahmed Hassan was brought on at a time in which he had been so pivotal in previous games, came up clutch again, scoring late on to make it 2-1 to PSV but 5-4 on aggregate for his side. They made it difficult for themselves but it was enough to see themselves reach the Round of 16 for the second consecutive season. 

Round of 16 and The Gunners...Again

People said it was a joke at first as both sides were in the draw for the Round of 16 but no one believed that they would meet again. But low and behold Premier League side Arsenal and Olympiakos were drawn to face each other once more. Many fans from both sides reacted massively on social media with Gunners still feeling the sting of last season's exit at the hands of a late Yussef El Arabi strike in North London. Thrylos supporters saw this as a chance to repeat the same achievement. 

 

Although Arsenal still boasted some fantastic individual players there were weaknesses in their game that could be exploited as well as having the mental edge over a team that tended to crumble under too much pressure. Sadly for Olympiakos in the build-up to the revenge match as it was dubbed, lost several key players, first Marios Vrousai and Ruben Semedo to long term injuries, and on the penultimate game against Aris, before the Europa League clash, Ba went down early in his own clutching his back. While the news came out late that week that Be would be fit for Thursday, even appearing in the starting lineup before the game, he pulled up injured in the warm-up so Pedro Martins had no choice but to switch Yann M'Vila as a makeshift centre back. 

 

This essentially started Olympiakos rather weaker than perhaps would have in the game against the Gunners, still is not entirely the cause of what would unfold over the tie. After the first half in which both sides had ample chances to open the scoring, most notably Masouras skying a shot he should have instead squared to El Arabi, it would be the Gunners that took the lead through a fantastic outside of the box striker from Martin Odegard. After half time Thrylos pressed much better against their opponents and after substitute Danny Ceballos was pressured off the ball El Arabi smartly finessed past an out-of-position Bernd Leno.

After another shot that was well blocked by Bellerin to prevent the home side from going ahead, it would be set pieces that would come back to haunt Thrylos. Willian crossed the ball into the box from a corner which found the header of Gabriel who leapt over M'Vila and looped the ball over an unsuspecting Jose Sa. After that Olympiakos heads seemed to drop, and with so much space in midfield it gave Arsenal the chance to fire the killing blow in the form of a wonder strike from Mohamed Elneny to make it 1-3 and put the tie almost certainly beyond Olympiakos.    

With the tie seemingly all but done for the Greek Champions, it seemed that with nothing to lose Pedro Martins tried something a little different when approaching the game at the Emirates. After practising a new formation in training, Olympiakos set up in an unfamiliar 5-2-3 formation which would give defensive cover but would also allow a quick counter and containment of the ball. With Ba back and Holebas dropping into the left centre back role, it was a mountain to climb but the objective was to give supporters a performance to be proud of, and they did just that. 

Despite starting slower of the two sides in the first half and almost conceding a Pepe shot after rounding Sa that was blocked by Sokratis, Olympiakos was kicked into gear after the Portuguese keeper excellently distributing the ball the El Arabi who only had the keeper to beat but Leno made a fantastic save to prevent the Moroccan from putting Thrylos ahead. At halftime, the tie was slowly becoming more and more to be turned around and despite warding off some fantastic chances from the home side Olympiakos pressed on from the start of the second half. Just before the hour mark, Ceballos made an identical mistake to the one he made in Piraeus which gave El Arabi the chance to put Olympiakos ahead and make it 0-1. 

Eventually, however, Mikel Arteta's men solidified in defence and prevented Thrylos from creating anything meaningful but it did not stop them from trying. As the last ten minutes loomed Ba received a Yellow card from a foul and in his anger he punched the ball in front of the referee which gave him the incentive to send the Senegalese defender off and reduce the away side to ten men. While this killed the tie a little bit it was not the sole reason why Olympiakos eventually lost the tie overall. Despite being knocked out Pedro Martins and his men had produced a fantastic performance and could leave Europe for another season with their heads held high that they had shown what they as a team are truly capable of.  

 

Heads Held High

When looking at the record that Olympiakos left with it is not anything spectacular. If you include the Champions League playoffs and finish with the Europa League Round of 16 exits, Thrylos finished up with four wins, one draw, and seven losses from twelve games. This also includes eleven goals scored, seventeen against, and a minus six-goal difference overall, a record that at first glance does not look particularly great. What supporters of the Piraeus side can take away from this season's European campaign, is that it has been a relative success despite some of the performances and overall record the team finished with. 

Reaching the round of 16 for the second consecutive season is nothing to turn your nose up at, as consistency in Europe is something that the club has struggled with over its history. 

Pedro Martins since he arrived at the club has managed to build a strong squad of players who have been extremely well drilled and have helped take the side back to being more competitive even against some of the biggest names on the European stage. What let them down, for the most part, was bad luck at times with injuries and covid case at the wrong time, something which other clubs naturally have had to deal with too over this testing time, but it is still one of the primary reasons why the latest tie against Arsenal went the way they did. Thrylos showed in that second leg that, with a fully fit squad of players in their correct position, they are capable of doing great things and maybe would have run the Gunners a bit closer in the race for the quarter-finals. 

There is a clear sense of consistency under Martins and fans of Olympiakos should be very proud of how their team bowed out of the Europa League and also excited for the future and the potential this crop of players have of achieving something even greater. 

I will be giving an overall rating for this European campaign and taking into account everything just spoken about I will give Thrylos European season a 7/10 as I feel that how far they progressed and matched their previous record in 19/20 is more important than their overall winning record.       

Hellas Football 

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