After racing off the blocks, FC Barcelona‘s form has dropped a little of late. After losing their unbeaten records in both La Liga against Sevilla and in the Champions League against PSG, they got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over Girona on Saturday, although it wasn’t until the last minute of injury time that they finally nabbed the three points thanks to substitute Ronald Araujo‘s goal.
Having bounced back on the domestic front, 6.45pm CET (a little earlier than usual) is the time to start doing likewise in Europe. Olympiacos are the guests at the Estadi Olimpic as the Catalans look to claim all three points and raise their hopes of a top eight finish, which would guarantee direct passage into the round of 16.
Greek visitors
Today’s guests are by far the most successful side in Greek football history, having won more than half of the domestic championships played over the years, including 14 of the 19 editions since it became the Greek Super League. And in 2024 they finally added a major European trophy to their collection of silverware, beating Fiorentina to win the Conference League.
In 2024/25, they are currently joint second in the league, one point behind PAOK (the only team to have beaten them in the competition), but their Champions League has been underwhelming so far. They could only draw 0-0 at home to 10-man Pafos of Cyprus, and then lost 2-0 away to Arsenal.
The current squad combines youth with experience, with the most capped players internationally being Mehdi Taremi (Iran, 99), Roman Yaremchuk (Ukraine, 63), Ayoub El Kaabi (Morocco 46), Yusuf Yazıcı (Turkey, 45), Gelson Martins (Portugal, 21), Bruno Onyemaechi (Nigeria, 19) and Panagiotis Retsos (Greece, 17).
Head to head
This is only the second time Olympiacos have been drawn to face Barça in Europe. In 2017, the two teams met in the group stage, Barça winning 3-1 at home and the game in Piraeus ending without score. In 14 games played against Greek sides over the years, Barça have only been beaten twice, scoring 29 goals and conceding just four, so history is very much in their favour for this one.
Olympiacos are managed by Spaniard José Luis Mendilibar, a man Barça fans should be familiar with, for this is the seventh different team with which he has faced Barça. The Basque’s record is pretty dismal. In 26 attempts he has only ever managed one win, with Osasuna in 2011/12.
Team news
Barça are again missing key players to injury with all of Joan Garcia, Ter Stegen, Gavi, Dani Olmo, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha sidelined, but there was also positive news with today’s announcement that Ferran Torres is fully fit and able to play. Andreas Christensen, however, is still having gastrointestinal trouble and will not be featuring. It also remains to be seen whether Hansi Flick adapts his selection with Sunday in mind, when Barça will be travelling to Real Madrid for the first Clásico of the campaign, and a number of Barça Atlètic players were named in his squad of 23.
Olympiakos have a fuller squad, for this one, but defender Rodinei is definitely out, and winger Gabriel Strefezza might have to sit the game out too.
