Olympiakos vs PSV Eindhoven: UEFA Champions League matchday four preview
Olympiakos vs PSV Eindhoven:
UEFA Champions League matchday four preview
By Stephen Kountourou
It is hard to put into words exactly what to think about Olympiakos’s UEFA Champions League campaign thus far. In some ways, the performances have been spirited; certain decisions that have gone against the Greek champions have ranged from unfortunate to downright egregious, and their points tally as we enter the midway point of the League Phase is probably not a true reflection of how competitive they have been, especially against better opposition at times.
On the other hand, however, the first match against Pafos FC, as I will continue to reiterate, was a huge missed opportunity, despite a spirited performance against Arsenal; early mistakes ultimately cost them, and the same can be said to a lesser extent against Barcelona in the first half…but we will get to that.
Now, Thrylos are in a position where three of their next five matches are simply must-win scenarios to have any hope of qualifying for the playoffs. Even with that added pressure, this is still the pinnacle of the European game, with no straightforward fixtures where nothing is guaranteed.
PSV will prove to be a very difficult opponent, especially since they are coming off a very emphatic victory on matchday three. But with a more even matchup than Olympiakos has faced in their last two fixtures on paper, there is no room for error for Jose Luis Mendilibar and his players.
Last time in the UCL
If you had shown any formal football supporter the score line for Olympiakos’s 6-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona, without context or a single second of highlights, they would probably assume that it was simply one of the biggest teams in club football resoundingly thrashing a side from a smaller league that lacks the quality to compete.
In reality, what transpired at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium was fully influenced by the ineptitude and severe lack of basic understanding of how to officiate a game of professional football by a referee who ultimately decided the result rather than any individual player on the pitch.
It must firstly be said that Thrylos do partially have themselves to blame, for just like against Arsenal, mistakes at the back in the first half led to Barcelona going 2-0 up despite a bright start from the Piraeus side. Even after that, Olympiakos still maintained the plan laid out by Mendilibar and in the second half, it eventually started to pay dividends. After a goal by El Kaabi was strangely ruled out for offside, the referee judged that a handball had been committed in the box, and Thrylos received a penalty, which the Moroccan striker scored to give his side their first goal in the competition so far.
Even after the break and post the penalty, the Greek champions were standing toe to toe with the Blaugrana and were pushing for an equaliser. But then it happened. After a tussle between Barcelona’s Fermín López and Santiago Hezze, the Argentine midfielder, who was being held around the waist by the opposing player, brushed López’s face, which was enough to send the Spanish international to the ground clutching his face.
Hezze, who was already on a yellow card, received a second and was sent off, reducing Olympiakos cruelly to ten men. Due to the current rules not allowing second yellow cards to be overturned, even though everyone knew it was the incorrect decision, Thrylos were forced to try to find a result from an already very difficult match.
If the Piraeus side had their hands tied due to the sending off, their feet were well and truly trussed up too, after the referee gave a very questionable penalty after Marcus Rashford fell in front of a diving Konstantinos Tzolakis. Lamin Yamal slotted home, and that is where heads finally dropped. Goals number four, five and six came in quick succession, and it was a hugely frustrating night for everyone involved with Olympiakos.
Even if the score line had stayed at 2-1 or they had lost with 11 men on the pitch at least, then supporters could have said that the team only had themselves to blame. But the officials decided the result, and whether people wish to believe that it was fixed or it was officiating corruption, the fact of the matter is that Thrylos were robbed of the chance to at least see out the game on their own terms, which is the most disappointing part of this whole affair.
It is also worth noting that, despite UEFA not acknowledging that the referee had made a mistake in sending Hezze off, there has been an internal review of VAR's ability to overturn second yellow cards since the match. So we will see if that is something which will be implemented.
PSV, by contrast, had an excellent night in Europe, getting their first victory of the campaign with a surprise 6-2 win against Serie A champions Napoli. The Italian side actually took the lead just after the half-hour mark through Scott McTominay, but they also levelled the score for the hosts, with Alessandro Buongiorno scoring an own goal minutes later. In-form Ismael Saibari scored to put Peter Bosz’s side ahead just before the break and overturning Napoli’s early lead.
From the second half onwards, it was all PSV from the get-go, with former Olympiakos target Dennis Man making it 3-1. With 15 minutes of normal time remaining at the Philips Stadion, Antonio Conte’s side was reduced to ten men when forward Lorenzo Lucca was shown a red card, putting the away side in an even more difficult position.
PSV took advantage of their numerical superiority, as the floodgates opened. Dennis Man scored again, followed by Ricardo Pepi and Couhaib Driouech goals five and six respectively, to complete a fantastic performance from Rood-witten.
Recent results
After the disappointing defeat to Barcelona, Thrylos returned to Piraeus for some quick-fire home fixtures. The first of which was a professional 2-0 victory over local rivals AEK in the league, followed by a 5-0 thrashing of Volos in the Greek Cup. Another tough test faced Olympiakos last weekend, with Aris visiting the Giorgos Karaiskakis Stadium before this upcoming match against PSV.
A first half ended with both sides still level and Olympiakos unable to open the scoring from their handful of opportunities. Five minutes after the second half began, a counter attack saw Ayoub El Kaabi's diagonal through ball find Daniel Podence.
The Portuguese winger sprinted the length of the pitch and after making his way through several opposing players fired a low shot past Giorgos Athanasiadis in goal to give the home side a 1-0 lead. The 30 year old was at it again, with just over half an hour remaining, some great interplay with Mehdi Taremi resulted in the Iranian striker scoring and giving Thrylos a two goals cushion.
The Greek champions hard work was almost completely undone when Gustavo Mancha gave away a penalty after a foul in the box and was shown a red card. Monchu pulled on back for the Thessaloniki side but even with the man disadvantage Mendilibar's players did not lose their heads.
Konstantinos Tzolakis was called upon to make a couple of fantastic saves to keep his team in front but Olympiakos saw out a crucial win in Karaiskaki to keep the pressure on PAOK at the top of the Greek Super League table.
The current Eredivisie champions enjoyed two more emphatic wins, this time in the league, firstly in a hard-fought 2-3 victory in the derby against Feyenoord and most recently this weekend just gone in a 5-2 win back at home against Fortuna Sittard. Ismael Saibari scored a first-half brace and Dennis Man put the game out of sight with a third just before half-time.
The travelling mid-table side did pull one back to make things a little interesting, but their hopes were well and truly crushed when Ricardo Pepi made it 4-1. Fortuna scored once again, but it was too little too late, and in added time, Guus Til made it 5-2, putting PSV top of the Eredivisie table.
Competitive record
When analysing Olympiakos’s record at home against opponents from the Netherlands, the numbers should be very encouraging for Thrylos fans. The Greek champions are unbeaten against Dutch sides, having played seven, winning five and drawing two. Goal difference is also a big positive with 11 goals scored and only three conceded.
Looking at the last time and only other time PSV travelled to Piraeus, it was during the 2020/21 season for the Europa League round of 32 first leg. In an empty Karaiskaki due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Olympiakos won 4-2 in an exciting end-to-end game. Thrylos ultimately qualified for the Round of 16, despite losing 2-1 in Eindhoven.
I had the pleasure of speaking to Noël Korteweg, sports journalist for Voetbal Premeur, about PSV and the Dutch perspective for this upcoming game.
What is the Dutch media's perception of Olympiakos going into this game?
The media haven’t really talked about this match just yet. The perception in the Netherlands, however, is that this is a game PSV should win. Their start of the season was a bit sloppy. They obviously lost against Union Sint-Gilloise in the Champions League, but a few weeks prior to that, they also lost at home against Telstar. Telstar won the play-offs in the second division last season, and this is their first season in the Eredivisie since 1978. Their win in the stadium of the champions was a very big achievement, as you can imagine.
PSV also drew at home against Ajax in September, but that felt like a loss to the team and the fans. PSV was by far the better side in the first half but didn’t convert their chances. Ajax was better in the second half and could’ve scored the 2-3 multiple times. At the end, a draw was the fairest result, but as I said, that felt like a loss to PSV. The game against Bayer Leverkusen (1-1) was a bit of a turning point for the team. Since then, they look like the dominating side they were for most of last season again.
How does PSV like to set up tactically under Peter Bosz?
PSV likes to play with a high line. They play energetic and attacking football. Since the game against PEC Zwolle, at the start of October, Bosz has used Jerdy Schouten as a central defender instead of a defensive midfielder. That choice really pays off so far. With Schouten, PSV can play through the opposing press from the back. They have a very well-balanced midfield. Joey Veerman is responsible for the passes through the lines and for the passes to the attacking players. Ismael Saibari, who is in the best form of his life, almost plays as a second striker and will get in and around the box. Mauro Júnior will always play a good game, no matter where you use him. He can play as a midfielder, a left-back, a right-back... Mauro can basically play anywhere.
PSV had a few troubles in the striker position, though. Ricardo Pepi is their main man, but he has been injured for the last couple of weeks. Myron Boadu was brought in as a backup for Pepi, but he also struggled with injuries. Because of that, Bosz used Guus Til, who is an attacking midfielder, as his striker. Pepi is now getting some minutes again, so I assume that he can also play (maybe as a substitute) against Olympiakos.
Despite losing to Union Saint-Gilloise on matchday one, PSV have got two very credible results, with the latter being that high-scoring victory against Napoli. Did that result come as a shock?
Yes, it came as a shock. In the Champions League, Dutch clubs are almost always the underdog against teams from the bigger leagues. Napoli are, of course, the Italian champions and were the favourites that game. PSV started the game really well, though. They had a lot of chances in the first half, but Napoli scored first via Scott McTominay. After that, PSV put their foot on the gas and scored two quick goals before halftime. In the second half, they were again the better team.
The last goal, from Couhaib Driouech, was, in my opinion, the best goal of the night. PSV played some outstanding quick football, and Driouech found the net in a very convincing fashion. That big win was a statement to Feyenoord, who they played a few days later. Saibari was phenomenal against Napoli but played even better against Feyenoord and scored a hat-trick. A lot of people now see PSV as the main contender for the title. It’s still a long season, though.
What key areas in the PSV team can Olympiakos hope to exploit, and who are the dangermen to look out for?
The man of the moment is Saibari. After the game against Napoli, he told Dutch media that that was maybe one of the best performances of his career. A few days later, on Sunday, he played even better and scored a hat-trick against Feyenoord. That really shows you the form he is in right now. Joey Veerman is playing very well again and Jerdy Schouten impresses in his new role as a central defender, too.
I don’t know how long Pepi can play against Olympiakos, but if he starts on the bench, that’s obviously good news for Olympiakos. Til is doing his best and makes a decent impression as a striker, but he is an attacking midfielder and thus not as dangerous as Pepi can be. Their full-backs, Anass Salah-Eddine and Sergiño Dest, are very good attacking-wise, but can be a bit vulnerable when they must defend. Dest was late before the game against Napoli and started on the bench because of that. He’s already back in the starting eleven, though.
It's now or never
It feels as though Olympiakos are facing PSV at the worst possible time. The Dutch champions are in excellent scoring form both domestically and in Europe so while it also fair and good to highlight that on paper this is a fairly even match up, this is going to be a battle of mental fortitude.
Thrylos have shown that even superior opponents on paper don't scare them and this has been highlighted in their last two Champions League fixtures despite losing both of them but they have also shown lapses in concentration at the back and conceded some very avoidable goals. You will be punished far more often at this level if you do not learn from those mistakes.
The Olympiakos players must do so starting from now, for their fans, for Mendilibar but also for themselves, because another defeat will not only be a huge disservice to the way they have been playing but it will almost be resigning themselves to not qualifying for the playoffs.
Even now it could be too early to say that considering how close the League Phase table is, but the point still stands that if Olympiakos wants to be competing in Europe's elite competition they need to be, well, competitive and win these kinds of fixtures. It's now or never.
@SteveKountourou
Hellas Football
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