{"id":354,"date":"2020-02-26T08:55:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T08:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/goonerholics\/?p=354"},"modified":"2020-02-26T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T08:55:20","slug":"a-glimmer-of-europa-league-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"A glimmer of Europa League glory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image courtesy of arsenal.com
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Having decided it was high time to watch my first Europa League match of the season, last Thursday I drove across the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota\u2019s capital, to the city of Minneapolis, the state\u2019s commercial hub and home of Brit\u2019s Pub, the local mecca of televised football and ultimate resource for those whose cable packages do not include Europa League games. I thought the expedition might give me a bit better background for writing this preview but as the atmosphere was a bit noisy and distracting, in truth the only useful knowledge gained was confirmation of my conviction that Brit\u2019s offers the tastiest pint of Guinness and the best cooked plate of fish and chips available hereabouts. The founder of this fine establishment, who sadly passed away last year, was a proud supporter of Burnley FC, but word has it he has been forgiven his trespass. Two pints of Guinness consumed, one for each half of the game, I drove back across the River pondering what tack to take in the preview, and opted for the classical approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first leg, Olympiacos started quickly, and went close twice in the opening minutes, but as the game developed Arsenal slowly seized control of the midfield, and with ten minutes remaining Alexandre Lacazette scored the only goal of the match, tapping in Bukayo Saka\u2019s lovely cross. Arsenal\u2019s task on Thursday evening is to maintain or improve that slim advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the relatively low prestige of Europa League encounters compared to the Champions League standard to which Arsenal were accustomed for 19 seasons ending in 2017, there is ample precedent to consider between these two sides. Arsenal faced Olympiakos over eight legs in the Champions League group stages in 2009\/10, 2011\/12, 2012\/13 and 2015\/16. The first six matches resulted in home wins, but in 2015\/16 Arsenal lost 2-3 at home only to recover 3-0 in Greece. In three of those four years, Arsenal eliminated their Greek opponents so Olympiakos will be seeking revenge, perhaps drawing upon the divine aid of Nemesis, the ancient Greek goddess of retribution. Either way, Arsenal must be on their guard in this knock-out round not to commit an act of hubris, or to entertain any arrogant ideas that the match could be decided before a ball is kicked. Arsenal defeated Everton in a home league fixture on Sunday afternoon, their third consecutive victory in all competitions, and do not play again until Monday night when they face Portsmouth away in a fifth round FA Cup tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal won both of their previous Europa League round of 32 ties, in different circumstances. In 2017\/18 they won the first leg 3-0 away against \u00d6stersunds before losing 1-2 at home. Last season they lost 1-0 in Belarus at BATE Borisov but recovered to win the home leg 3-0. Arsenal began this, their third straight Europa League group stage campaign, with three straight wins but then faltered, needing a late comeback at Standard Li\u00e8ge in the last match to qualify as group winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympiakos sit top of the Greek Super League, undefeated after 25 matches, last having played Sunday when they defeated second placed PAOK Thessaloniki, who trail Olympiakos by five points in the table. They entered this year\u2019s Europa League knockout stage after being eliminated from their Champions League group where they finished third behind Bayern Munich and another club from north London. This is Olympiakos\u2019 seventh appearance in the Europa League round of 32. They have won just two of their previous six ties at this juncture \u2013 against Rubin Kazan in 2011\/12 and Osmanlispor in 2016\/17 \u2013 and have yet to progress beyond the round of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedro Martins, the coach of Olympiakos, became the club’s fifth Portuguese boss in six years in April 2018, following Leonardo Jardim, V\u00edtor Pereira, Marco Silva and Paulo Bento. Martins had not previously worked outside his homeland before moving to Greece, but he has outlasted most of his recent predecessors at the club. If and when Jose Mourinho is sacked, the self-instigating rumour mill suggests Olympiakos could be interested in making him the next Portuguese boss in line, and Mourinho may need the job having fallen so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olympiakos\u2019 biggest attacking threats are 33 year old Moroccan centre-forward Youssef El-Arabi, who has scored 22 goals, and 35 year old French attacking midfielder Matthieu Valbuena, who looked dangerous in the away leg and has added eight goals and eighteen assists in all competitions. The age of those players makes me wonder if the Greek side will be able to maintain an effective attacking threat late in the game when legs are tiring, but they also feature the more youthful 26 year old Greek international left-winger Georgios Masouras, who has contributed six goals and four assists. Konstantinos Tsimikas, a 23 year old Greek international left-back, and Omar Abdellaoui, a 28 year old Norwegian right-back, have been constants in the Olympiakos defence, but after 25 minutes of the first half in the first leg, centre-back Ruben Semedo, another important player in their defensive setup, received a yellow card that will cause him to miss the second leg. The Olympiakos midfield workhorses include 22 year old Guinea international Mady Camara, 28 year old Brazilian defensive midfielder Guilherme, and 26 year old Greek international Andreas Bouchalakis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team selection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the away leg at Piraeus, Sokratis Papastathopolous played in place of the injured Hector Bellerin at right back. Bellerin did not travel to Greece as a precaution over a groin issue, while Sokratis suffered a knee problem himself late in that game. Bellerin played against Everton on Sunday, and Sokratis was available on the bench, so Mikel Arteta is likely to call on Sokratis against Olympiakos if he is healthy. Otherwise, if he wants to rest Bellerin, Arteta could recall Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the first time since 18 January when Arsenal drew at home with Sheffield United. The rest of the back four should remain unchanged with Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Bukayo Saka all keeping their places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Greece the Gunners were without Mesut \u00d6zil who was attending the birth of his first child, and as a result the team lacked some coordination in attack but \u00d6zil should be available on Thursday. The midfield trio of \u00d6zil, Granit Xhaka, and Dani Ceballos, which was so effective in the last two league games against Newcastle and Everton, should be able to keep on clicking against Olympiakos, but in the away leg Arteta started Matteo Guendouzi and Joe Willock, who could both play important roles at some point, as could Lucas Torreira who has not played more than 45 minutes since the Chelsea game on 21 January. Up front, Alexandre Lacazette, who scored the key late goal in the away leg, should lead the line with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe stretching defenders on his flanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mustafi and Xhaka are the only two Arsenal players who must avoid accumulating another yellow card in this game in order to avoid missing the next Europa League contest, so Arteta could alter his team selection or substitutions with that issue in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal playing at the Emirates is almost invariably a decent bet for a home win of any sort, and most of the week I have been tempted to back a Homer of a 4-1 win to straighten the arc of Arsenal\u2019s Europa League odyssey as they march on to the round of 16 ties on the 12th and 19th of March. Indeed, Arsenal have made a habit of late goals in the Europa League this term, scoring in the final 15 minutes of all but two games, which suggests the shine of a 4-1 scoreline beckons like the lure of a distant lighthouse on a Mediterranean shore. But in the last couple of days I have feared I might have been guilty of hubris for predicting an overly optimistic result, so have an alternative result ready for you, complete with hints of classic Greek tragedy: Olympiakos to open the scoring and make nerves jangle until 10 minutes from time when a bit of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu plays out as Lacazette connects with a Saka cross to put the Gunners through despite only managing a home draw in the second leg. In the full light of day, this result may be more realistic considering Arsenal have not won four matches on the bounce since October, and are playing their fourth match in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Arsenal do manage to go through, no other Greek Super League clubs will remain in the competition but in the next round there is still a small chance of facing Greek opposition in the form of APOEL (Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia) if the Cypriots can overcome FC Basel on Thursday despite having lost the home leg 0-3. Odds on the likelihood of that eventuality are available at your local Greek take-away window, I am quite sure. Personally I wouldn\u2019t mind that or any other draw but do hope UEFA will not throw us to Wolves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a good one, \u2018holics, wherever you may be to watch the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having decided it was high time to watch my first Europa League match of the season, last Thursday I drove across the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota\u2019s capital, to the city of Minneapolis, the state\u2019s commercial hub and home of Brit\u2019s Pub, the local mecca of televised football and ultimate resource for those whose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}