Olympiacos Piraeus hosts Krasnodar in the first leg of the Champions League qualification finals. The match will be played on Wednesday, August 21st at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium (Piraeus)
Having missed the Champions League group stage in the last season, Olympiacos is surely ready to return there with great determination. The Greeks got a very difficult draw. In their first qualifying round, the Greeks met strong and stubborn Czech Viktoria and beat it with a 4-0 score on average. Then Turkish Basaksehir came into their way, and the Greeks didn’t have any problems either. A 3-0 victory on average! The national championship has not started yet, but the men of Pedro Martins approve themselves very decently! The Greek team kept a clean sheet in FOUR matches of the Champions League in a row! Moreover, it has a rich European cup experience, and this fact is completely on the side of Olympiacos. As usual, the squad of the Greeks simply dapples with various legionnaires. Now they have players of immediately 13 different nationalities! It’s hard to say that it is very good or bad, but as we can see from the results of the team, such wide geography does not harm them!
| 2 x £10 Free Bet | Review | |||
| 100$-500$ for No Lose Free Bets | Review | |||
| 100% up to £200 | Review | |||
| Not available | Review |
Honestly, it’s hard to say what we saw a week ago... It seems that it was the most ordinary underestimation on part of the Portuguese Dragons. The stupid game aiming at keeping the score played a cruel joke with the Portuguese, and they were left without the Champions League for the first time in many years... Of course, Krasnodar did a great a job: they took advantage of the opponent’s underestimation and somehow survived in the second half, losing it with a 0-2 score that was acceptable for them. But for me, Krasnodar remains an accidental passenger of such a serious stage of the Champions League! And I continue to claim that such Krasnodar will have nothing to do in the group. And the experienced Greek team will not make the same mistakes as Porto did. The defense of Krasnodar causes big questions. Young Safonov often makes terrific saves at his goal, and it saves Krasnodar. But even his high-quality talent is not enough to save constantly after an uncertain game of defense... As a result, Krasnodar has kept a clean sheet in only 2 out of 7 official matches of the current season... And I will remind you that Olympiacos didn’t concede a single goal in four matches of the season. So, in my opinion, the Bulls have already tumbled over themselves, and it’s time for them to go down to the Europa League.
I will take such a bet: the victory of Olympiacos, but with a zero handicap. This handicap is needed in case of a cowardly game on both sides. The fact that Krasnodar will burrow at its penalty area doesn’t cause any doubts! But Olympiakos might not go forward much in the first match, as it did in the confrontation with Viktoria, where the first match ended with a 0-0 score.
Prediction for the match: Olympiacos Piraeus to win with 0.0 handicap
