Sports Mole previews Thursday’s Europa League clash between Slovan Bratislava and Olympiacos, including predictions, team news and possible line-ups.
Slovakian Bratislava and Olympiacos Head into the second half of their third round European League Qualified after the 1-1 draw in Greece a week ago.
The reigning Slovakian champions have lost just one of their last six games at Tehelne Pole, while last season’s Greek champions have been without a win in their last five away games in all competitions.
Table of Contents
game preview
©Reuters
Bratislava should assess their chances of progressing to the final qualifying stage of this tournament much better than they did a season ago.
Belasi lost the opening game against the same Olympiacos team 3–0 in 2021–22 and could only manage a 2–2 draw at home in the second leg, which eliminated them from the competition.
It seems like they’ve grown a lot from that experience, advancing to the second phase of Champions League qualification in the last two seasons after failing to get past the first qualifying rounds in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Vladimir Weiss has seen his side squander two advantages in European competition this season, losing the second leg of their Champions League second-round qualifier to Ferencvaros 4-1 after winning the opener 2-1 while losing in The Greeks conceded an equalizer in the 86th minute last week.
They’ve been the league of the Slovak Super Liga of late, winning four consecutive domestic titles, although Belasi haven’t been able to find the same success in the Europa League, only making it to the group stage once since 2015–16.
Despite this, the Slovaks have a successful track record of leading or drawing after the opening game of a Europa League qualifier, losing in this scenario only once since the 2017–18 season when they gambled away a 2–1 lead at Rapid Wien in the third round of the qualifying stage 2018/19 and lost the second leg 4-0.
Of late, Bratislava seem to be playing better from behind, winning two of their last three meetings in all competitions after conceding the opener.
They scored four times in the second half against Michalovce and twice in the last 10 minutes of their Champions League first leg against Ferencvaros, winning 2-1.
©Reuters
The past month and a half has not been easy for the Piraeus club, who have won just one of their last nine games in all competitions.
Carlos Corberan was signed to try and get that club back on track and in his first game in charge, Olympiacos made a late breakthrough last week to reach Bratislava.
Corberan is inheriting a club which, despite his recent struggles, will have far higher expectations than what the Spaniard experienced in his previous managerial role at Huddersfield Town, where he coached from July 2020 to July 2022.
In his two seasons as manager in the league, he took a direct approach with quick counter-attacks and swapping positions, which works well in Greece where holding back and defending are usually the first priority.
Thrylos have made at least the group stage in each of their last four Europa League seasons and have not missed the round-robin portion of that tournament or the Champions League since 2010/11.
In the last three domestic seasons, Olympiacos have conceded fewer than 20 goals at all but one stage of the competition, conceding 26 in last season’s playoff round but still winning the league by 19 points.
Slovan Bratislava Europa League form:
Slovan Bratislava Form (all competitions):
Form of the Olympiacos Europa League:
Olympiacos form (all competitions):
Team News
©Reuters
Andre Green Bratislava scored the only goal in the first leg against the Greeks a week ago Ivan Saponjic, David Hrncar and Jaromir Zmrhal scored in last weekend’s 3-0 win against Skalica Adrian Chovan collect a clean leaf.
green and Ezekiel Hentycurrently on loan to Al-Hazem in the Saudi Professional League, both drew 2-2 at home to Olympiakos in last season’s Europa League qualifier, Ibrahim Rabiu led the Slovak league in 2021/22 with eight assists while Hrncar had five.
Just four players who started their opening qualifier also entered their national encounter over the weekend as Chovan, Green, Zmrhal and Guram Kashia all included in the original 11 vs Skalica.
One goal down Youssef El-Arabi helped save Erythrolefki in the first leg against Bratislava Mathieu Valbuena pick up an assist for this game.
Georgios Masouras led that team with four domestic assists last season, while three players were named Greek Super League MVP of the Month this season, including El-Arabi (twice). Tomas Vaclik and Pape Abou Cisse.
Vaclik, Cisse Oleg Reabciuk, Mady Camara, Philip Zinkernagel, Tiquinho and Masouras were the seven players who faced Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League late last month and also started against Belasi.
Slovan Bratislava possible starting line-up:
Chovan; De Marco, Abena, Kashia, Pauschek; Kankava, Agbo; Cavric, Chakvetadze, Barseghyan; Green
Olympiaco’s possible starting line-up:
Vaclik; Pipa, Papastathopoulos, Cisse, Reabciuk; Valbuena, Client, M’Vila; Zinkernagel, El-Arabi, Masouras
We say: Slovan Bratislava 1-0 Olympiacos (Slovan Bratislava win 2-1 on aggregate)
The home field should be a clear advantage for the Slovaks, who usually play with much more structure and sovereignty in the backcourt in front of their fans.
Olympiacos have an extensive experience advantage but they haven’t been particularly good in front of goal lately and may need some time to get their defensive form back on track as they have conceded eight goals in their last four games.
For data analysis of the most likely outcomes, goal scores and more for this game, please click here.
top tip
Our expert Tipster partners at Sporita.com predict over 1.5 goals in this game. Click here to find out what else they predict for this game and for more of their football best tips.About 1.5: data