Olympiacos first Greek club to reach group stage via League Route
Olympiacos have become the first second-placed Greek club to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage after the current qualifying format was installed in 2009.
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10 years ago, UEFA introduced a new format for the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, creating the Champions Path and the League Route. However, until this summer, no Hellenic team had managed to progress all the way to the group stage through the League Route.
Panathinaikos were the last second-placed Greek club to advance to the Champions League group phase through the qualifiers in 2008.
Here are all of the results of Greek clubs in the League Route since the current qualifying format was introduced in 2009:
2009/2010
Sparta Prague - Panathinaikos, 3-4 (3-1, 0-3)
Panathinaikos - Atletico Madrid - 2-5 (2-3, 0-2)
2010/2011
Ajax - PAOK, 4-4 (1-1, 3-3 - Ajax advance on away goals rule)
2011/2012
Odense - Panathinaikos, 5-4 (1-1, 4-3)
2012/2013
Motherwell - Panathinaikos, 0-5 (0-2, 0-3)
Malaga - Panathinaikos, 2-0 (2-0, 0-0)
2013/2014
PAOK - Metalist Kharkiv, 1-3 (0-2, 1-1 - Metalist Kharkiv subsequently disqualified from competition)
Schalke 04 - PAOK, 4-3 (1-1, 3-2)
2014/2015
Standard Liege - Panathinaikos, 2-1 (0-0, 2-1)
2015/2016
Panathinaikos - Club Brugge, 2-4 (2-1, 0-3)
2016/2017
Ajax - PAOK, 3-2 (1-1, 2-1)
2017/2018
AEK - CSKA Moscow, 0-3 (0-2, 0-1)
2018/2019
PAOK - Basel, 5-1 (2-1, 3-0)
PAOK - Spartak Moscow, 3-2 (3-2, 0-0)
PAOK - Benfica, 2-5 (1-1, 1-4)
2019/2020
Viktoria Plzen - Olympiacos, 0-4 (0-0, 0-4)
Basaksehir - Olympiacos, 0-3 (0-1, 0-2)
Olympiacos - Krasnodar, 6-1 (4-0, 2-1)
Following in the footsteps of Panathinaikos and Fenerbahce, Olympiacos are third club in 11 years to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League while the domestic champion (in this case PAOK) failed to make it:
