Next stop… Brittany for Olympiacos. The Piraeus-based team will play (5:30 p.m.) at Rennes’ home stadium for Matchday 4 of the Europa League group stage.
The “Red-and-Whites” have gone 3-0 in the competition, defeating Jagiellonia 2-1 at the “G. Karaiskakis” Stadium and 1-0 over Sparta Prague at the same stadium, while in between they suffered a 1-0 loss to Marseille at the “Velodrome.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Imanol Alguacil’s team has nine consecutive wins across all competitions and is aiming for its 10th. Olympiacos has won the “must-win” games in Europe, and any result they bring back from “Roazhon Park” will be welcome.
Ideally, they’ll go 4-for-4, with Coach Vasco stating at the customary press conference that “We’re Olympiacos; we came here for a 4-for-4, and we’ll try to make it happen,” but also “There are no easy games; we have to be at the same level as in our other matches against Jagiellonia, Marseille, and Sparta.”
The 56-year-old coach brought all available players with him. It should be noted that Popovic, Sipioni, Roca, Clayton, and Marius are not on the European roster, nor, of course, is the injured El Kaabi, and certainly not Yazici.
Olympiacos’ roster: Ortega, Stournaras, Georgakopoulos, Saliakas, Smailović, Pirolá, Carmo, Pedersen, Retsos, Bruno, Tiknizian, Fortounis, Sa, Martins, Puerta, Bailey, Froiler, Tsikinio, Ese, Tufakis, Gonzalez, Yaremchuk, Zota Silva
Rennes will be looking to bounce back from their heavy 5-2 league defeat to Nice. In Europe, they remain undefeated, having come from behind to beat OFI 2-1, while drawing 0-0 in their opener against Sturm Graz on the road and 2-2 against Juventus in Italy. Forward Lepol and starting goalkeeper Samba are out.
Possible lineups:
Ren (Frank Haise): Lemaitre – Bountial, Cresswell, Rouol, Reynolds, Thomason, Rongier, Simianski, Nagida, Dia, Soumare
Olympiacos (Imanol Alguacil): Ortega, Saliakas, Retsos, Pirola, Tiknizian, Ese, Puerta (Froiler), Zelsson, Cicinho, Zota – González
Referee team:
Referee: Igor Pajac (Croatia)
First Assistant Referee: Bojan Zobenica (Croatia)
Second Assistant Referee: Ivan Michal (Croatia)
Fourth Official: Dario Bel (Croatia)
VAR: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
AVAR: Piotr Lasik (Poland)
