Olympiacos on a mission to create history in England
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - ROUND OF 16 (LEG 2)
AGONAsport previews the second leg of the 2019/2020 UEFA Europa League Round of 16 tie between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Olympiacos in England.
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The Greek champions are on a mission to create history. In what has been a memorable, never-ending season, Olympiacos have already emphatically claimed the Super League title while performing admirably in Europe, but they aren’t done yet. The Erythrolefki are only 90 minutes away from their maiden Europa League quarter-final if they can score in England and keep Wolves at bay.
Nevertheless, taking into account the strength of the opponents, it’s no simple task.
Coached by Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves have been particularly impressive in the Europa League this season, advancing to the Last 16 by defeating the likes of Torino, Besiktas and Espanyol along the way after initially beginning their continental journey in the second qualifying round of the competition. The manner in which Wolves thrashed Espanyol 4-0 at home in the Round of 32 spoke volumes about their European ambitions.
However, after finishing in seventh position of the Premier League and seeing eighth-placed Arsenal win the FA Cup, Wolves must claim the Europa League trophy in order to qualify for the 2020/2021 edition of the tournament.
Wolves do possess a slight advantage after the first leg in Piraeus in March. At the start of the second half, the prolific Youssef El Arabi had managed to give 10-man Olympiacos the lead at the Karaiskakis Stadium, but Pedro Neto subsequently equalised with a deflected free kick. Olympiacos must score at Molineaux in order to stand a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Ruben Semedo is suspended for Olympiacos after receiving a red card in the first game.
The Greeks will be knocked out if they fail to find the back of the net. Naturally, a win for either side will send the respective team through, while a 1-1 draw will take the tie to extra time and a score draw of at least 2-2 will be enough to earn qualification for Olympiacos on the away goals rule.
Considering the result of the first match in Greece, many consider Wolves to be the favourites, but Olympiacos can certainly draw plenty of confidence from their famous 2-1 triumph at Arsenal in the previous stage of the Europa League. Pedro Martins’ troops, who have not lost a single away match since early February against PAOK in the Greek Cup, have claimed nine victories in their last 11 matches across all competitions.
Last summer, Olympiacos qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League by confidently beating Viktoria Plzen, Basaksehir and FC Krasnodar in the preliminaries, before they dropped down to the Europa League after coming up short against Bayern Munich and Tottenham Hotspur. Olympiacos saw off the challenge of Red Star Belgrade on the final matchday of the Champions League group phase to earn a Europa League spot.
TEAM NEWS: WOLVES
Unlike Martins, Wolves coach Santo doesn’t have any injury or suspension worries, with all of his main players available for selection. Daniel Podence, who transferred to Wolves from Olympiacos in the winter transfer window, finished the 2019/2020 Premier League in superb form and is likely to start the game. Podence has scored one goal and dished out one assist in the domestic league for Wolves since leaving Olympiacos.
Possible line-up: Rui Patrício, Boly, Coady, Saïss, Doherty, Moutinho, Neves, Jonny, Traoré, Podence, Jiménez.
TEAM NEWS: OLYMPIACOS
Unfortunately for Martins, key goalkeeper Jose Sa is unavailable due to a serious injury, meaning that Bobby Allain will stand between the Olympiacos sticks in Wolverhampton. Semedo is also out as a consequence of being sent off in the first leg.
Martins has added Ahmed Hassan and Cafu to his European squad.
Requiring goals, Olympiacos can’t afford to be too cautious, and it will be interesting to see if attacking midfielder Kostas Fortounis is included in the starting line-up in place of either Andreas Bouchalakis, Guilherme or Mohamed Camara. El Arabi will lead the line.
Possible line-up: Allain, Tsimikas, Ba, Cisse, Elabdellaoui, Bouchalakis, Guilherme, Valbuena, Camara, Masouras, El Arabi.
REFEREE: SZYMON MARCINIAK (POL)
Polish referee Marciniak, 39, will take charge of proceedings on Thursday evening. During the current campaign, the Pole has been the head referee for five Champions League matches and one Europa League game, notably overseeing the Galatasaray - Paris Saint Germain (0-1), Atletico Madrid - Liverpool (1-0) and Rangers - Bayer Leverkusen (1-3) battles.
Interestingly, in 2017, he was the referee for Greece’s home defeat to Belgium (1-2) in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Assistant referees: Paweł Sokolnicki (POL), Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL)
Fourth official: Pawel Raczkowski (POL)
Video assistant referee: Pawel Gil (POL)
Assistant video assistant referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)
