UEFA Champions League League Phase MD8
Kick-off time: 22:00 Greek time
Venue: Johan Cruyff Arena
Where to watch: Cosmote Sport 2 HD
One game left to go.
For several clubs in the UEFA Champions League, Wednesday night’s matches will decide whether they remain in Europe’s elite club competition or exit entirely. For Olympiacos, the objective is clear:
Defeat Ajax in Amsterdam to make the best possible push to finish in the top 24 and qualify for the play-offs.
After last week’s impressive victory over Bayer Leverkusen in Piraeus, supporters of the Greek champions will have their belief reignited that Jose Luis Mendilibar and his players can achieve this goal.
Even though the Dutch side’s form in Europe has improved as well, they have nothing to play for, having already failed to qualify. They will surely still want to end their campaign on a high note by condemning Thrylos to the same fate.
Last time in the UCL
Jubilation. The best word to describe the reaction to Olympiacos’s 2-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. Billed as a must-win game by the media and supporters alike, Thrylos hosted the Bundesliga side to keep their play-off hopes alive, and they did so emphatically.
With the starting XI in a similar set-up to last season, with Rodinei playing at right wing with Costinha behind him, it was ironically the right side pairing that got the Greek champions started perfectly.
After winning an early corner, the Brazilian’s cross found the Portuguese’s head to hammer home the first goal of the game to shock the visitors and put Olympiacos ahead.
The German side attempted on numerous occasions to find an equaliser in the first half, only to be thwarted by the brilliance of Konstantinos Tzolakis in goal and the tireless efforts of Santiago Hezze in midfield. Just half-time, Panagiotis Retsos cleared an effort from his own box, which landed in front of Rodinei.
The Brazilian got his second assist of the night, countering brilliantly and passing a diagonal ball to Mehedi Terami. The Iranian striker played himself onside and, with an excellent run in the final third of the pitch, struck his shot past Janis Blaswich to make it 2-0.
It was the perfect response to the disappointing Greek Cup exit to PAOK the week before, and in doing so, restored supporters’ faith in the players.
The win against Bayer Leverkusen marked the end of a terrible run against Bundesliga clubs, with Thrylos having lost their last six home matches against them and without a win when facing a side from Germany in 15 years.
After all other matches had concluded on the January 21, Olympiacos found themselves in 24th, just inside the play-off places, with one last opponent in the league phase still to play.
Having suffered an early elimination from the UEFA Champions League, Ajax had nothing to play for going into their penultimate game away to Villarreal. But against the Spanish side, who had an even worse record than them, they came back to win 2-1 in Spain.
The hosts opened the scoring early in the second half through Tani Oluwaseyi, with young Israeli midfielder Oscar Gloukh equalising after the hour mark. As the clock struck 90 minutes, Ajax got their late winner as Norwegian forward Oliver Edvardsen scored to give de Godenzonen their second win in a row in this season’s competition, albeit too little too late to fight for a place in the play-offs.
Weekend results
Jose Luis Mendilibar unsurprisingly made heavy rotations to his Olympiacos starting XI against Volos in the weekend’s Super League match. Thrylos ran out 1-0 winners in the end, with some individuals shining and others seeminly still not living up to their potential even halfway through the season.
The Greek champions could have won by a much greater margin, with Volos depleted by injury. But it was, of course, Ayoub El Kaabi who scored the opener and the eventual winner, after a smart pass from Daniel Podence fed the Moroccan striker to curl it past Nikos Grammatikakis.
Konstantinos Tzolakis was called upon once again to make some excellent saves in this game, but overall it was a comfortable afternoon for Thrylos, who briefly went top of the table, but are now behind AEK with a game in hand.
Ajax followed up their win in Europe with another at the Johan Cruijff Arena, 2-0 against Eredivisie strugglers FC Volendam.
A brace from Dutch defender Youri Baas in the first half ultimately sealed the victory for interim coach Fred Grim and his team to stay a distant second place from runaway leaders PSV.
Previous encounters
Olympiacos have, perhaps unsurprisingly, a poor record against Ajax in Amsterdam. Thrylos have never won against them in the Netherlands, drawing once, losing twice and to top it all off, are yet to even score in an away fixture when facing Ajax.
Even when looking at their record against other Eredivisie clubs, the Piraeus side is winless away from home. So on top of needing to win to secure their place in the Champions League play-offs, Mendilibar’s men need to end their goalless and winless record against Ajax in the Netherlands, as well as get their first-ever away win against a Dutch club.
- READ MORE: Who is Bournemouth signing Christos Mandas? The view from Greece
- READ MORE: Levadiakos, Europe and Greece returning to the top
Final 2.0
In a rollercoaster campaign, to say the least, Olympiacos are on the brink.
Either Thrylos achieves their goal of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in 12 years, or they crash out at the last hurdle, and their European campaign ends for another season.
Mendilibar and the players have shown their absolute best and worst at times during this campaign, capable of brilliant individual moments against some of the titans of the sport, but have also perhaps done themselves a disservice in matches they needed to win to make their situation a more comfortable one. That and the occasional refereeing blunder…
They must give everything against Ajax to be in that play-off draw, even with a hugely important derby match against AEK awaiting them when they return to Greece after Wednesday night. All this has to have a means to an end.
After all that the Greek champions have been through before matchday eight, they cannot leave Amsterdam empty-handed.
It is not the Mendilibar way, or the Olympiacos way.
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