Crucial finale to determine Olympiacos’ European future
 

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 6

Olympiacos host Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday night in a Champions’ League Group Stage finale that puts their European season on the line.

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Pedro Martins’ side need only a win against their Serbian opponents in order to ensure they finish third in Group B and clinch a place in the Europa League Round of 32. Red Star, meanwhile, must only avoid defeat to ensure they go through. The Serbian champions have three points after five matches, those all coming from their Matchday 2 home win over Olympiacos, 3-1. In that match, Olympiacos appeared to be heading to victory until a red card changed the course of the encounter with Red Star scoring three unanswered goals to notch the win.

This has set up what essentially amounts to a final on Wednesday evening in what will undoubtedly be a rocking Karaiskakis Stadium. Passions will be running high, though in a friendly manner considering the friendly relations between the two clubs’ supporters.

Olympiacos’ 2-2 home draw with Tottenham to open up the Group Stage proceedings remains their only point so far. Recapturing the league title has been the overriding goal for Olympiacos this season. One point from their first five Champions’ League matches suggests that the focus of the Piraeus club is elsewhere and not on Europe. However, the team’s displays through the Champions’ League campaign have been positive for the most part. They have been much more competitive than Red Star against group heavyweights Bayern Munich and Tottenham and with a bit more concentration and good fortune could have perhaps picked up a few more points.

Olympiacos easily rolled past Panetolikos this past weekend 3-0. In a match-up of first versus worst in the Greek Super League 1, Olympiacos swept to victory with an early goal from Daniel Podence and a brace from Youssef El-Arabi.

Red Star head into this match supremely focused on continuing their European run. With a ten-point lead in the Serbian SuperLiga over nearest challengers Vojvodina, Vladan Milojevic’s men are clearly the favorites to win another domestic title. Barring a catastrophic collapse in the second half of the campaign, winning the SuperLiga appears to be a mere formality.

The Serbian champions warmed up for their Champions’ League finale with a 3-1 victory over Spartak Subotica over the weekend. After going down to an early deficit, goals from Jander and Tomane along with an own goal gave Red Star their 17th victory in 19 matches.

TEAM NEWS: Olympiacos

The big miss for the Greek side is undoubtedly the absence of Mathieu Valbuena. The French midfielder had gone to French to his personal physiotherapist in hopes of making a recovery in time, but an injury sustained last week in the derby versus PAOK will assures he won’t be able to partake in Wednesday night.

Martins will be sweating on the availability of Avraam Papadopoulos as the veteran center-back attempts to reach full fitness ahead of this game. It’s likely that Papadopoulos will make the cut for the starting eleven, otherwise Yassine Meriah will be recalled.

While Martins looks set to go with a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-3 formation, reports suggest he has also considered lining up in a 4-4-2 setup. In that case, Miguel Angel Guerrero would be brought in alongside El-Arabi.

Possible Line-up (4-2-3-1): Sa, Tsimikas, Semedo, Papadopoulos, Elabdellaoui, Bouchalakis, Camara, Guilherme, Masouras, Podence, El-Arabi

TEAM NEWS: Red Star

Milojevic has no injury worries in advance of this match.That is due to the fact that the team’s leading European scorer this season, Ghanaian attacker Richmond Boakye has overcome an injury and has been named to the squad. Milan Pavkov missed the Matchday 5 encounter with Bayern, but has since returned to the fray. With eight goals on the season, Pavkov remains the team’s biggest goal threat as leading scorer and former Olympiacos attacker Ben Nabouhane (nine goals in 2019/20) is not on the Champions’ League roster. In fact, he is one of a number of players who have played regularly for Red Star domestically, but who are not in the team’s Champions’ League squad such as Milan Jevtovic and Milan Gajic.

Milojevic is expected to opt for a conservative approach at the Karaiskakis Stadium with a defensive midfield base, comprised of former PAOK player Jose Canas and young talent Njegos Petrovic, covering the usual back four of Milos Degenek, Nemanja Milunovic, Milan Rodic, and Marko Gobeljic. Milan Borjan is the undisputed number one in goal having played in all of the Serbian club’s European matches this season.

Possible Line-up (4-2-3-1): Borjan; Gobeljic, Milunovic, Degenek, Rodic; Canas, Petrovic; Garcia, Marin, Van La Parra; Pavkov

REFEREE: Daniele Orsato

The man in charge of this important clash is UEFA Elite Referee Daniele Orsato. The 44-year-old heads an all-Italian contingent overseeing this tie and has officiated matches involving Greek clubs several times.

Orsato was the referee for Olympiacos in the team’s away victory over Montepelier in the Champions’ League Group Stage in 2012. A year earlier he oversaw Greece’s 2-1 win over Georgia in EURO 2012 qualifying. Orsato has officiated Europa League encounters involving PAOK (1-1 home draw versus Rubin Kazan in 2011), Panathinaikos (2-1 home defeat to Dinamo Moscow in 2014), and Atromitos (1-0 defeat to Fenerbahce in 2015).

Orsato also has previous experience with Red Star having whistled their 0-0 home draw with Salzburg last year in the Champions’ League play-offs.

Referee: Daniele Orsato (ITA)

Assistant referees: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA), Alessandro Giallatini (ITA)

Video Assistant Referee: Marco Guida (ITA)

Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Ciro Carbone (ITA)

Fourth official: Daniele Doveri (ITA)

by George Tsitsonis

Image Source: to10.gr

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