Olympiacos F.C. in European football

European campaigns

Olympiacos has a long presence in UEFA competitions. They made their debut on September 13, 1959, in a game against Milan at the Karaiskakis Stadium for the 1959–60 European Cup, being the first Greek team to compete in a European competition. However, they were to play for the first time against Beşiktaş for the preliminary round of the 1958–59 European Cup, but the Greek side finally withdrew. Olympiacos was also the first team from Greece to advance to the next round of any European competition, eliminating Zagłębie Sosnowiec for the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup. Their best European campaigns came when they reached the quarter-finals of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, where they were eliminated by Juventus, and the quarter-finals of the 1992–93 European Cup Winners' Cup, before losing to Atlético Madrid.

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League is the competition where Olympiacos have spent most of their European history. The first brilliant moment for the club in the tournament came in the 1974–75 European Cup, when the team from Piraeus managed to eliminate highly profiled Celtic. In the second round, Olympiacos suffered an away 5–1 defeat against Anderlecht but came close to an unexpected upset in the second leg, where they won 3–0. The club also made it to the last 16 of the European Cup in two consecutive seasons; the first in 1982–83, qualifying over Öster and eliminated by later on European Champions Hamburg. The German side smashed Olympiacos at the Athens Olympic Stadium with an impressive 4–0 win, a game that marked Olympiacos' history in two ways; on the one hand that was their heaviest ever home defeat in European cups, on the other hand they set a record home attendance of 75,263, a number that no other Greek club have ever surpassed. In the 1983–84 European Cup, Olympiacos enjoyed a prestigious win on aggregate over Ajax, with a scoreless draw at the De Meer Stadion and a 2–0 win at the Athens Olympic Stadium, but Benfica, the 1982–83 UEFA Cup runners-up, proved insuperable, although Olympiacos managed a historic 1–0 home win in the first leg against the Portuguese club.

In the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League, one of the most talented ever Olympiacos sides came close to a semi-final appearance. Their campaign began in the second qualifying round, with Cypriot side Anorthosis not able to prevent them from participating in the group stage for a second time in a row. They were drawn in Group A along with Croatia Zagreb, Porto and Ajax, where they managed to win all three home games and secure two away draws, topping the group and getting the ticket for the quarter-finals. There, they were drawn to face Juventus, one of the favourites to win the trophy. In the first leg at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin, Juventus won Olympiacos to 2-1, which meant that the Greek team only needed an 1–0 victory in Athens to proceed. A vintage performance, scoring early with Siniša Gogić and never allowing their opponents to create chances, was five minutes away from making that scenario come true. However, Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, Olympiacos' goalkeeper, misjudged the flight of the ball in a seemingly harmless cross and Juventus had the last laugh, escaping with an 1–1 draw from the Athens Olympic Stadium, which was the beginning of the "Late-Goal Curse" that superstitious supporters firmly believe hangs upon the team, especially in away matches.

Olympiacos did not qualify from the group stage for the next eight seasons in the top club's European competition. In the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, Lyon and Olympiacos had the same total of nine points, but the Greek team was placed third in the group due to their 2–1 win in Athens and the away goal that the French side had scored in the last minutes, while the match in Stade de Gerland ended with a 1–0 win for the hosts. In the 2004–05 season, Olympiacos were drawn in a hard group with the runners-up of the previous year AS Monaco, Liverpool and Deportivo. Rivaldo made an inspiring debut for Olympiacos at the Estadio Riazor against his former Spanish team Deportivo, but the Reds only managed to get a 0–0 draw. The team predictably won all three home games in the freshly renovated Karaiskakis Stadium, notably with the same score 1–0, meanwhile losing 2–1 away against Monaco. With one match to go and in a very bizarre combination of results, Olympiacos were in danger of being one of only two teams in Champions League history that have managed to collect ten points but still failed to qualify for the next round. They went to Anfield to play the last match against Liverpool and in order to progress they had either not to lose, or to score and not lose by more than one goal difference. Rivaldo turned back the years to show the capacity crowd why he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1999. He opened the scoring with a foul he earned after an impressive solo-effort for the 0–1 Olympiacos lead, which was the half-time result. Olympiacos needed to concede three goals in the second half to be eliminated and indeed Liverpool managed to score the third goal again in the last minutes of the game, with the final result being 3–1, which marked the premature end of yet another Olympiacos' Champions League campaign. Liverpool were the ones to progress and they, incidentally, went on to actually lift the trophy, producing a similar display in the final.

In the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, Olympiacos made one of their best performances at European level. Drawn in one of the toughest groups of the tournament along with Real Madrid, Werder Bremen and Lazio, Olympiacos finished second with eleven points, the same with Real Madrid which were placed on top. Following a draw 1–1 to Lazio in Karaiskakis Stadium, it is the season that Olympiacos made their first ever away win in the Champions League, a 3–1 win against Werder Bremen in Weserstadion, turning the game around from 0–1. In the third game, Olympiacos were finally defeated 4–2 to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, after a heart-breaking match in which the Greek team was playing with 10 men from the 13th minute and was leading the score to the 68th with 2–1, turning it around from 0–1 and wasting a lot of chances to score more. Real Madrid scored their third goal in the 83rd, but Olympiacos came close to score many times during the last minutes of the match and leave Madrid with the draw, when Real secured the win with a last-minute goal. Olympiacos opened the second round of the group stage with a draw 0–0 to Real Madrid at the Karaiskakis Stadium and kept alive the record of being undefeated by Real Madrid in Athens in four matches, while the Reds moved a step closer to qualifying for the last 16 after coming from behind to defeat Lazio 2–1 in Stadio Olimpico. On December 11, Olympiacos smashed Werder Bremen 3–0 at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens, which ensured their place in the knock out stage of the tournament, where they faced Chelsea. At the first match in Athens, the Reds achieved a scoreless draw against the Blues, but they were eliminated in the second leg at the Stamford Bridge after they lost 3–0.

UEFA competition record

Olympiacos' record in UEFA competitions.

Current ranking

As of March 17, 2017.

Ranking in the last ten years

Season 2016–17 in progress.

Memorable matches

Notes