Olympiakos – Arsenal

Olympiakos welcomes Arsenal at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskaki in a first game between these two teams from the 1/16-finals of Europa League. Let’s take a look.

Olympiakos participated in the Champions League’s group stage and they finished third in their group, which allowed them to progress to Europa League. In the CL the Greek team won once once and made one draw, which was enough for them to beat Crvena Zvezda for the third place.

The Greeks have a decent squad at the moment, managed by the Portuguese tactician Pedro Martins. During the winter break they also made an interesting addition to their squad, signing from Galatasaray the Turkish talent Emre Mor.

During the weekend Olympiakos prepared for Arsenal with a dominant 4-0 win over Panionios in the Greek Super League 1. The Moroccan Youssef El-Arabi scored a brace, while Koka and Konstantinos Fortounis also put the ball in the net. Olympiakos are leading the standings with two points advantage in front of PAOK.

Arsenal progressed in Europa League although they were not as convincing as they wished in the group stage. The Gunners won their first three matches in the group, but won just two points in the next three. This was part of the reason why the manager Unai Emery got sacked and replaced by Mikel Arteta.

For Arteta this is going to be a first European game with Arsenal. Last season the Gunners reached the final, so now they are aiming to do it again. The team has suffered just one loss since the appointment of Arteta – against Chelsea in the Premier League. Now the young Spanish manager would like to start well in Europe, too.

Arsenal will have the upper edge against Olympiakos, but it’s usually not easy to play in Greece. Olympiakos will give the Gunners a good fight, you can be sure about that.