- EUROPA LEAGUE Preview: Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, PAOK -
 

Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, and PAOK will hope to clinch their place in the UEFA Europa League Group Stages in today’s second leg matches for the Playoff Qualifying Round. All three teams have a commanding lead in their respective ties. Olympiacos and PAOK will host Arouca and Dinamo Tbilisi while Panathinaikos will travel to Brondby. TV Listings for all the games can be found here.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - PLAYOFF QUALIFYING ROUND

Background: Panathinaikos came away with an emphatic 3-0 victory at home to Brondby in the first leg of the Europa League Playoff Qualifying round. The Prasini will travel to Denmark for the second leg with hopes of finishing the job and returning to the Europa League Group Stage. An early goal from Panathinaikos will kill off the tie while an early goal from Brondby could result in a nerve-racking night for the Greek club. Over the weekend, Brondby thrashed Aarhus 0-7 in the Danish Superliga.

Starting Line-up: Stramaccioni’s plans for the starting line-up are not clear, but he is likely to use the same players from the first leg. With a commanding lead, the Italian coach will emphasize defensive minded tactics with a probable starting line-up consisting of: Steele, Moledo, Koutroubis, Ivanov, Hult, Mesto, Zeca, Ledesma, Wakaso, Ibarbo, and Berg.

Scenarios: Panathinaikos will advance to the Europa League Group stage with a win, draw, defeat by two goals or less, or a three goal defeat if Panathinaikos scores. A 3-0 defeat will send the game into extra time while a 4 goal or more defeat will send Brondby through.

Referee: The referee will be Oliver Drachta from Austria. He has refereed a Greek team on one other occasion, in Asteras’ 2-0 victory over APOEL in the 2016 Europa League Group Stages.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - PLAYOFF QUALIFYING ROUND

Background: PAOK defeated Dinamo Tbilisi 0-3 in Georgia for the first leg. The Dikefalos tou Vora will simply play out the final 90 minutes (hopefully without any surprises) and secure their place in the Europa League group stages for yet another season. Over the weekend, Dinamo Tbilisi defeated Tskhinvali 2-4 in the Georgian Umaglesi Liga. PAOK’s new signing, Varela, was added for the first time to the roster while Athanasiadis was left out due to injury.

Scenarios: PAOK will advance to the Europa League Group stage with a win, draw, or defeat by two goals or less. A 0-3 defeat will send the game into extra time while any other 3 goal defeat, or greater, will send Dinamo Tbilisi through.

Referee: The referee will be Harald Lechner from Austria. He has refereed a Greek team on one other occasion, in Panathinaikos’ 1-1 draw with Estoril in the 2014 Europa League Group Stages.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - PLAYOFF QUALIFYING ROUND

Background: Olympiacos has the smallest advantage of the three Greek teams going into the second leg of matches. The Greek Champions defeated Arouca 0-1 in Portugal and are the clear favorites to advance to the Europa League Group Stage. Despite the rough start to the season, Olympiacos had a better showing against Arouca, displaying their overall higher quality, and a similar performance in the second leg will be enough for them to progress.

Starting Line-up: Two changes are expected from Paulo Bento from the first leg. Fortounis, who returned from injury, will take the place of Dominguez and Vouros will be the right back replacing Figueiras (suspended). The probable starting 11 will be: Kapino, Vouros, Botia, da Costa, de la Bella, Milivojevic, Cambiasso, Seba, Pardo, Fortounis, and Ideye. Omar, Bouchalakis, and Siovas were left out of the roster due to injury along with Maniatis, who is on his way out of the club. New signing Andre Martins was included for the first time in the roster.

Scenarios: Olympiacos will advance with a win or draw while a 0-1 defeat will send the game to extra time. Any other defeat will send Arouca through to the Group Stages.

Referee: The referee will be Aleksei Eskov from Russia. The former player, that is now a referee, has officiated two Greek teams in the past, in Xanthi’s 1-2 victory against Linfield (Europa League 2014 qualifying) and APOEL’s 2-1 victory over Asteras in the 2016 Europa League Group Stage.

Image Source: uefa.com

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