Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Olympiacos 07/08/20

7 August 2020

A 1-1 draw in Piraeus means Wolverhampton Wanderers and Olympiacos have everything to play for at Molineux in the return leg of their UEFA Europa League last-16 tie.

The hosts finished runners-up to Braga in Group (W4, D1, L1) to secure a place in the knockout stage and went on to eliminate Espanyol in the round of 32, 6-3 on aggregate (4-0 H, 2-3 A). Notably, Wolves have racked up three consecutive Europa League home triumphs going into this clash, all of which were accompanied by a clean sheet. By extension, the ‘Wanderers’ boast an almost perfect home record in the Europa League this season), qualifying included (W6, L1), as well as an intimidating +15 goal difference from those fixtures (GF:17, GA:2). Moreover, they’ve avoided elimination in all three of their previous UEFA two-legged ties in which they drew the first leg on the road.

As for the visitors, they’ve picked up two wins from their previous four European trips to England (D1, L1), all of which saw both teams on the scoresheet. But, they had suffered 12 successive defeats on English soil before and have also lost nine of their last 11 continental trips (W1, D1). Additionally, the ‘Thrylos’ have battled their way through to the next round only once from the 13 UEFA ties in which they played out a home draw in the first leg. This season alone, they lost three of four European trips (D1), all of which yielded a full-time margin of at least two goals, qualifying excluded. Yet, the Greek giants have secured back-to-back successes in two-legged ties versus the Premier League opponents after previously losing all six.