After starting the Champions League campaign with a victory against Athletic Club, we take on Olympiacos in our second league phase clash at Emirates Stadium.

The Greek champions kicked off their European season with a draw against Cypriot outfit Pafos two weeks ago, and ahead of our showdown in N5, here’s all you need to know about Wednesday night’s opponents:

The history

Founded a century ago in 1925, Olympiacos are based in Piraeus, a port city in the urban Athens area. A name inspired by the Olympic Games, the club also has a host of teams in other disciplines, including basketball, water polo, volleyball and handball. 

They are comfortably the most successful team in Greece, winning a record 48 league titles – the rest of the teams in the country have 41 combined. Their trophy haul of 82 puts them as the 15th most successful football club in the world by competitive honours. Their dominance began in the 1930s, and they would win six league titles undefeated between 1937 and 1955. They won seven titles in a row between 1997 and 2003, as well as more recently between 2011 and 2017.

While their success domestically is unrivalled, Olympiacos are also the only Greek side to win a European trophy, lifting the Europa Conference League in 2024 when they defeated Fiorentina in the final at the home of their rivals, AEK Athens. The trophy was also the first of UEFA’s major prizes won by a side not in Europe’s big four leagues since 2011.

Their best run in the Champions League came in 1998/99, when they narrowly missed out on reaching the semi-finals. Having knocked out Porto, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb in the group stages, Thrylos were drawn against Juventus. Having lost the first leg 2-1, Olympiacos needed a 1-0 victory at home to reach the final four. The Greek side were leading 1-0 going into the final five minutes before Antonio Conte broke Olympiacos hearts to help Juve progress instead.

the manager

Jose Luis Mendilibar took charge of Olympiacos in February 2024 before guiding the side to the Europa Conference League crown three months later. The vastly experienced Basque, born just 60km from Mikel Arteta’s hometown of San Sebastian, started coaching in 1994. Despite taking on 16 coaching roles in the last 30 years, his move to Olympiacos was his first outside of Spain. 

Mendilibar’s most successful stint before Olympiacos came with Eibar, where he helped Los Armeros maintain their La Liga status for five seasons. He won the Segunda title with Valladolid in 2006/07, as well as managing Athletic Bilbao, Osasuna, Levante and Alaves, while a short tenure at Sevilla in 2023 brought Europa League success after they defeated Roma on penalties.

last season

Olympiacos celebrated their 100th year in existence with yet another league title and Greek Cup to boot in 2024/25 – the 19th double in their history. After picking up just four wins from the first nine games, Mendilibar’s side then dropped just six points in the next 17 matches to finish the regular league phase 16 points clear of second-placed Panathinaikos. 

The side then won four of the five Championship Play-Offs to cement their dominance and clinch yet another league crown, albeit their first in three seaons aftr PAOK and AEK Athens tasted success in the two campaigns prior. In the cup, the Red and Whites defeated Athens Kallithea, Panathinaikos and AEK before knocking out OFI in the final thanks to goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Ayoub El Kaabi.

The season so far

The successful campaign of 2024/25 saw Olympiacos qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2020/21, when they finished third in a group containing Marseille, Manchester City, and Porto. Their first match back in the main draw of the UCL saw them play out a 0-0 at home to debutants Pafos. 

Domestically, Olympiacos are unbeaten and back in the familiar territory of first place in the Super League. The Greek side have won four of the first five games, with a 1-1 draw against rivals Panathinaikos the only blemish on an otherwise perfect start, although they needed a 96th-minute winner to beat Levadiakos at home on their last outing, with Chiquinho grabbing the last-gasp goal.

the squad

At 29 years and 263 days old, Olympiacos have one of the oldest squads in the Champions League this term, only behind Inter Milan and Pafos. They used all their experience to win the league last season, with many of the goals coming from 32-year-old Ayoub El Kaabi. The Moroccan forward joined in 2023 and netted 27 times across all competitions to help complete a league and cup double in 2024/25. Ukrainian Roman Yaremchuk was the second-highest scorer with 10.

Flying right-back Rodinei has an eye for an assist, with the Brazilian setting up 14 goals across three competitions last season, four more than teammate and Euro 2016 winner Gelson Martins.

After winning the league, Olympiacos made eight signings this summer, including former Wolves attacker Daniel Podence, on loan from Saudi side Al-Shabab, and Iran forward Mehdi Taremi, who has faced us in each of the past couple of seasons for Porto and Inter Milan. Other Premier League players to look out for include former Newcastle United winger Remy Cabella and ex-Nottingham Forest defender Giulian Biancone.

the previous meetings

We need no introduction to our Greek opponents, having faced Thrylos 12 times down the years, and both sides have six wins apiece. We were first paired in the Champions League group stages in 2009/10, before also facing the Piraeus-based side in 2011/12 and 2012/13. There were home comforts for both sides in these contests, as we won all three of our games at Emirates Stadium and Olympiacos did the same at the Karaiskakis Stadium.

We last met in the Champions League in 2015/16. Having lost 3-2 in the home fixture, only a win by two clear goals in the away match would send us through to the round of 16. Up stepped Olivier Giroud, whose stunning hat-trick gave us a famous 3-0 win in Athens.

Under Mikel Arteta, the Greek side knocked us out of the Europa League in 2019/20 before we exacted revenge a season later. The first leg of our round of 16 clash in 2021 was a significant one for Martin Odegaard, who lashed in his maiden goal in Arsenal red before Gabriel’s towering header and a piledriver from Mohamed Elneny gave us a 3-1 first-leg lead, enough to steer us into the quarter-finals.

Read more How to watch Arsenal v Olympiacos on TV

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