Olympiakos vs Fenerbahce: Europa League Match Day 5 Preview

Olympiakos vs Fenerbahce:

Europa League Match Day 5 Preview

By Stephen Kountourou 

After what felt like a mercifully short yet disappointing international break, club football is back and so it shall stay for the rest of the calendar year until March 2022. Just as excitingly continental club football also makes its return as all three of UEFA’s major competitions are now in the latter part of the group stages. A few sides have already sealed their fate with two games to spare, whether that is a qualification to the knockout stages, dropping into a lower tier competition or even being dumped out of European football altogether. 

Greek champions Olympiakos is currently on the precipice of either recovering their European campaign and finishing in the top two, finishing third and resigning themselves to Europa Conference League football or the most unlikely outcome being that they finish bottom of Group D. After a very poor doubleheader against Frankfurt, in which 1st place was taken out of Thrylos hands, Pedro Martins men must rally and quickly if they want to stop the bad run to tarnish their European campaign. 

The objective for Match Day 5 is simple. A win against Fenerbahce on their final home game of the group stages would mathematically seal top two and at the very least a place in the playoffs against Champions League opposition. If Olympiakos at the very least want to keep themselves from completely throwing away the knockout stages of Europe’s second competition a victory is an absolute minimum against the Turkish side.

Most recent domestic performances

 

Olympiakos

Thrylos faced off against AEK in the Athens derby on Sunday evening. In a first vs the second clash, the objective for travelling champions was a win that would see Olympaikoss take a 6 point lead at the top of the Greek Super League table. It could not have been a more perfect start for Pedro Martins men after a corner pinged around the box and found Aguibou Camara connecting with the ball just outside the box and levelling a stupendous strike past Stankovic to make it 0-1. After going ahead, Erythrolefki went into themselves and attempted to keep control of the game. Meanwhile, AEK, spurred on by their 40 thousand supporters in OAKA searched for an equaliser. Enosis would get just that 15 minutes later after a cross found the head of Sergio Araujo beat Vaclik to the ball and into the back of the net, sending the packed crowd into raptures. 

Despite losing the lead, this seemed to reawaken the travelling side and Olympiakos began to press the hosts and take back in their favour. After a freekick found Kenny Lala outside of the box, with his shot tipped over the bar by Stankovic, the Frenchman moments later chipped a well-timed ball over to El Arabi. The Moroccan expertly beat the offside trap, ran unchallenged towards the AEK keeper and nutmegged him to put Thrylos back on top 1-2, to the silence of the OAKA crowd. 

After the halftime break, both sides exchanged chances in a fairly end to end affair, with a Masouras shot going just wide of the post and Vaclik being called to action to make a well-timed block from substitute Nordin Amrabats attempt. Calamity struck Enosis midway through the second half. Left back Milad Mohammadi’s back pass was intercepted by an oncoming El Arabi, who once again found himself unencumbered as he rounded Stankovic and scored to make it 1-3, doubling the champions lead and putting Thrylos firmly in the driver’s seat of this match. 

After Mady Camara rattled the cross back in a failed attempt to make it 1-4, AEK despite the scoreline, piled on more pressure and eventually were handed a gift with just over ten minutes of normal time remaining. Masouras, who had failed to clear the ball, kicked it into the path of former player Ansarifard, whose cross found Araujo. Sokratis uncharacteristically failed to deal with the oncoming cross and the Argentine levelled the ball past him, with Vaclik failing to save the shot also, and in doing so making it 2-3. With a late glimmer of hope, AEK continued to search for a late equaliser, but Olympiakos shut up shop and were able to hold on until the final whistle. The victory meant Thrylos extended their lead at the top of the table by 6 points and it will hopefully act as a huge confidence booster going into Thursday’s match

Fenerbahce

Fener, like their upcoming opponent on matchday 5, had a huge derby match during the weekend against arch-rivals Galatasaray. Within the first 16 minutes, Vitor Pereira’s men found themselves behind a goal from an Akturkoglu strike. The away side would pull the game back to level terms with half an hour on the clock, as Mesut Ozil equalised.

After the break, both sides failed to break through and take the lead in the local derby for the vast majority of the second half. In the latter stages, Marcel Tisserand received a straight red card and Fener were reduced to ten men for the last 8 minutes of normal time. With the fourth official announcing a whopping 12 minutes of added time, the travelling side, despite being a man down, was able to take a late lead through Miguel Crespo to make it 1-2 and give Fener all three points against their biggest rivals. It was also the former Turkish champions first victory in 4 matches. 

Injuries and Suspensions 

Olympiakos injury list at the time of writing is currently minimal. Michal Karbownik has been suffering from ligament problems for nearly a month and Kunde has been out since before the international break with a sprain. Both players are likely to miss the clash on Thursday. 

 

Prediction  

With everything at stake in the match and the further of Olympiakos European campaign nothing more than a win in Piraeus will be good enough to secure, second and a place in the playoffs against a former UCL opponent. Pedro Martins must approach this game with a similar mindset to the first encounter in Turkey. Let Fener have the majority of possession, allow them to create gaps in their defence and counter-attack to try and create chances of their own. Thrylos are already on a downward spiral since their consecutive defeats at the hands of Frankfurt and throwing the top two away now would be a disaster for the club's aspirations this season. I will be optimistic, however, and predict that Olympiakos will make it over the line and secure 2nd place in a narrow 2-1 victory in front of the Karaiskakis faithful.

Hellas Football 

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