Olympiacos Piraeus vs Freiburg prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-09-20 19:00.
Diego MartĂnez may remain unbeaten since taking charge of Olympiacos this summer, but he’s still not satisfied with their performance levels. A 1-1 draw with AEK Athens at the weekend means the manager has won six of his eight games (D2) in the dugout, but insists there are parts of their game they “have to start improving.”
One area of “weakness” that MartĂnez has highlighted is the Red and Whites’ defending of set-pieces, but a respectable total of just three goals conceded this season shows their defending is generally respectable. Two of them came in the UEFA Europa League (UEL) however, where wins over Genk and ÄŚukariÄŤki ensured they qualified for the group stages of a European competition for the 13th year running.
They will now face a familiar opponent in their opening group game, Freiburg, with the two teams also paired together at this stage of the competition last season. The German outfit came out of those H2Hs unbeaten (W1, D1), including a 3-0 win in Greece, form they will be looking to rekindle having lost their last two fixtures domestically.
The most recent of those was a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund, a result which manager Christian Streich described as “brutal” as his side conceded three times after the break to surrender a half-time lead. Freiburg appear particularly frail at the back having conceded nine goals in their last two matches, something they’ll have to improve on if they’re to end a run of four UEL matches without a win (D2, L2).
Key battle: Olympiacos forward Ayoub El Kaabi has netted first or last in eight of his last nine goalscoring appearances. Hoping to out-gun him may be visiting attacker Michael Gregoritsch, who has won ten of the last 11 games in which he has scored, including when bagging a brace against the Red and Whites last season.
Hot stat: Freiburg have only lost two of their previous 12 outings in the UEL group stages (W5, D5).