10-man Olympiacos keep Wolves at bay

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - ROUND OF 16 (LEG 1)

Olympiacos earned a creditable 1-1 draw against Wolves in their UEFA Europa League Round of 16, first-leg clash at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus on Thursday, in a match which the Greek club played with 10 men for over an hour after Ruben Semedo was red-carded in the first half.

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After Semedo’s sending off just before the half-hour mark for a mis-timed tackle on Diogo Joto, Youssef El Arabi put Pedro Martins’ side in front with a tap-in following a slick passing move at the start of the second half.

The hosts then battled manfully from then on to keep Wolves at bay with a numerical disadvantage. Nuno Espírito Santo’s team created chances to equalize, but Olympiacos goalkeeper Jose Sa made some vital saves to prevent the English club from pulling level.

Sa was finally beaten, however, in the 67th minute by Pedro Neto’s deflected shot after he was teed up by Joao Moutinho’s set-piece.

Olympiacos then managed to impressively hold firm for the remainder of the match to give themselves a chance and set up an intriguing second leg at Molineux.

THE MATCH

The encounter in Piraeus had a somewhat cold and eerie feel to it with it being played behind closed doors as a precaution due to the threat posed by the Coronavirus.

The absence of the home side’s fanatical fans perhaps evened things up in this opening match of the tie as Martins’ men looked to negotiate passage in another European tie against English opposition. 

This time there was some added spice to the tie with two Portuguese managers coming up against each other. Santo and Martins are well known to each other as they also played together at Vitória SC in 1994/95.

Olympiacos boss Martins fielded the expected 4-3-3, with no surprises. Youssef El Arabi spearheaded the attack, while the experienced Mathieu Valbuena started on the left-wing and Giorgos Masouras on the right.

For Wolves, the recurring problems with his left shoulder in recent weeks did not keep Adama Traoré out of the tie as he was selected along with Jiménez and Diogo Jota in the Wolves’ attack, with the team’s ‘brain’ Joao Moutinho behind them.

Daniel Podence, the Portuguese winger who was at Olympiacos for 18 months until six weeks ago, started on the bench.

The first half was not a 45 minutes of football that will live long in the memory. Wolves were happy to let their hosts dictate play but chances were thin on the ground, while Wolves were unable to make any inroads.

The best chance of the half fell to Masouras in the 24th minute. Olympiacos broke down the right with El Arabi making an intelligent run. The Moroccan’s low cross was ideal for Masouras, who arrived perfectly to meet it, but the Greek international steered his first-time shot onto the crossbar and over.

It was the home side who saw more of the ball and continued to ask the questions with Valbuena’s probing and El Arabi’s running off the ball, but chances were at a premium in what was an extremely tight contest.

All that changed on 29 minutes when Olympiacos defender Semedo was sucked into a challenge by Joto, who tried to go past him to get a shot on goal. Semedo was the last man, and it left the French referee Jean Turpin with no choice but to sent him off.

Wolves began to take the initiative, but Olympiacos showed impressive stamina and movement to hang on to possession and create the occasional threat.

The hosts did have a let-off as half-time approached in the 43rd minute as a misplaced pass let in Adama Traore, but the muscular winger dragged his shot wide of Jose Sa’s right post from a good position.

Having gone in 0-0 at half-time, it seemed a question of whether Olympiacos would be able to keep Wolves at bay in the second half, and they came out clearly in a determined mood to do so.

After making a confident start, again showing great composure on the ball and working hard off it to make up for the numerical disadvantage, Olympiacos opened the scoring in the 54th minute.

It was a brilliant team effort starting with Mady Camara’s clever run and pass to Guilherme down the right channel. Guilherme then showed great vision to square the ball across for El Arabi to slot home from close range and spark jubilant celebrations among the home players and dugout.

Wolves responded quickly and Raul Jimenez was thwarted by Jose Sa’s reflex save in the 59th minute before Ruben Neves flashed a shot from the edge of the penalty area narrowly wide a minute later.

After a period of pressure, Wolves finally got a breakthrough in the 67th minute. It was in fortunate circumstances, with Neto’s shot from a set-piece taking a wicked deflection off Andreas Bouchalakis before rolling into the corner past the helpless Jose Sa.

Martins freshened his attacking options in the last 20 minutes by replacing El Arabi with Kostas Fortounis, while Podence was also brought on by Wolves in the 79th minute.

Jimenez twisted and turned on the edge of the box before firing a low shot straight at Jose Sa with 10 minutes left as the visitors searched desperately for a winning goal.

Olympiacos managed to hold off their English opponents and earn a well-deserved draw which leaves the tie delicately balanced.

STARTING LINEUPS

Olympiacos: 1 Jose Sa (GK), 14 Elabdellaoui, 3 Semedo, 24 Ba, 21 Tsimikas, 4 Camara, 8 Guilherme, 5 Bouchalakis, 28 Valbuena, 19 Masouras, 11 El-Arabi

Wolves: 11 Patricio; 15 Boly, 16 Coady, 27 Saiss; 2 Doherty, 8 Neves, 28 Moutinho, 29 Vinagre; 37 Traore, 9 Jimenez, 18 Jota

Image Source: sportime.gr

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