Olympiacos: Only two teams have beaten West Ham, scoring in London in the first minute!!! | Blog – Kostas Nikolakopoulos

K. Nikolakopoulos approaches through his blog in the gazzetta tonight’s very difficult game of Olympiakos in London.

Martinez is right again. As he had said in the first match that Olympiacos had to play a perfect game to beat West Ham in Karaiskaki, now he said that Olympiacos had to play a more than perfect game to beat West Ham in London!

So that we can understand the dynamics of this English team on their pitch in European competitions: in this three years playing in the Europa League (two seasons) and the Conference League (one season), they have given 14 games at home. They have won 11, drawn one and lost two. He brought the draw last year with Lyon (1-1), playing with one player less throughout the second half due to Cresswell’s suspension from the 44th minute, with the French unable to take advantage of the numerical advantage and simply equalizing at 66′ the goal they ate in 52′.

You want to know how did West Ham lose their two home games, also last year, competing in the Europa League, just like this year? Lost 1-2 in the semi-finals of the competition to Eintracht, with the Frankfurt side opening the scoring in…1^The minute, thin! And lost 0-1 in the group stage against Dinamo Zagreb, who opened the scoring in…3^The minute, thin! Detail: the match against the Croats was pointless, last game, with the English having already secured not only the qualification, but also the first place and playing with the… third.

West Ham at home he wins a lot of penalties and if he finds you a bit bossy, it will not be good for you. For example, last year they beat AEK Larnaca 1-0, the Cypriot team was down one player at the end of the half and in the second half the final score was 4-0. He has scored four in Ghent and three in Topola, Viborg, Steaua, Genk. Three of these teams even took the lead in London, as did AZ Alkmaar, but eventually lost.

On the other, Of course, in recent years we have an Olympiakos, standing in Europe far from his home. For example, for more than two years now he has played 17 away games in European competitions and has four wins, four losses and nine draws! Among his victories are 1-0 against Arsenal and 3-0 against Fenerbahce and among the draws are 1-1 with Freiburg and 1-1 with Genk. His losses are 1-2 against Nantes with a goal in the 92nd minute, 1-2 against Atalanta, 1-3 against Eintracht and 0-1 against Antwerp.

In general, that is you call Olympiakos a tough nut, although it needs further analysis and finding that several of these results are in qualifiers, while when we talk about group stages and above, where things are usually even more difficult, his results in this period of about 2.5 years is one win, three draws and five losses. Be that as it may, Olympiacos must be more careful, both as a team and individually. Because, for example, he gives a lot of penalties. And he continues this year: penalty in Genk, penalty in Freiburg, penalty even in PAOK and Panserraikos. And all the penalties at absolutely crucial points in the games.

Eg, the “red and white” must learn to manage set phases better. From a corner they conceded the defeating goal from Freiburg, from a free kick they conceded the goal from Panathinaikos, in other games they were saved by luck or, due to Paschalakis, in great opportunities of their opponents precisely from corners and free kicks, while just on Sunday against PAOK the Koulierakis could score from a corner, and the two goals out of the four goals scored by PAOK were as a result of static phases, the second goal from a corner and the fourth from a foul. Can anyone notice that in both cases it was Zifkovic, who was outside the area, who took the save undisturbed and restarted the attack for PAOK, with a manifestation from the right side of the Olympiakos defense, where Rodiney was not in his position, but in a left back position, inevitably because in the “setups” he scores at the first post.

Otherwise, what we can record is the ease with which both West Ham and Olympiacos score, but also eat goals! The English in 14 official games have kept them clean in only one, playing at home to bottom Sheffield. But they haven’t scored in just one, also at home, the other day, losing 0-1 to Everton, perhaps a game that Martinez should “fall into” to use as a compass.

Something clear for this year’s West Ham? If they open the scoring, you have to be very lucky not to turn it around (only Manchester City have done that…), but at least to get a draw (only Newcastle and Bournemouth have done it). Instead, they have lost Arsenal, Freiburg, Chelsea, Brighton, Luton. On the contrary, when they conceded the first goal, they could only beat Topola, losing to Olympiacos, Brentford, Everton, Aston Villa, Liverpool.

It looks to me as perhaps the only scenario for Olympiacos to leave the home of West Ham and, as a result, take the lead in the score. Not that even then it would secure him!

Dietary: The Slovenian Jug has played Greek teams eight times in his career and has not won any. See, Olympiacos-Levante 0-1, Dynamo Kyiv-AEK 0-0 (excluding AEK), Bayern-AEK 2-0, Olympiacos-Freiburg 0-3, AEK-Ajax 1-1, but also the friendly Austria- Greece 2-1, even the derbies AEK-PAO 0-0 and AEK-Olympiakos 0-0!!! On the contrary, he has beaten English teams three times, and at home, with three of their victories.

Irrelevant: The chance that the champion of Greece for this season will play directly next year in a group of the Champions League, reaches a 1% chance…

Photo of the day:

Is El Arabi is now completely out of the picture, but it is interesting that in the last three games of Olympiakos in London, the Moroccan has scored! And 2-1 against Arsenal and 2-4 against Tottenham and 1-0 again against Arsenal…

by the way, there are many players from the current Olympiakos roster who have played in England: Podense, Jovetic, Scarpa, Carvalho, Ibora, Richards, Biancone. The question is whether any of them will be in the starting line-up!

Let me remind Finally, at the end of July, Olympiacos was in England for a friendly, losing 0-2, hands down to Norwich of the Championship. With Martinez, however, putting most of the starters in the second half and Paschalakis not at all.