A European Journey For The Ages
Today marks 105 days since Olympiacos played their biggest game in their almost 100 year history. 100 days since the Kostas Fortounis lifted Greece’s first club European trophy into the clear night sky under the floodlights of Aek’s ‘OPAP Arena’. As we get ready for a new European campaign and the league having gotten underway in which Olympiacos will be hoping to win on our 100th year anniversary, I thought it would be nice to rewind back and review the quite simply astonishing journey we experienced and how we ultimately got crowned as Conference League Champions.
New Beginnings
I would like to take us back all the way to June of 2023, almost a year ago; Diego Martinez was announced as our new head coach, who alongside him brought a whole new backroom staff. It was supposed to be a new start, a complete sweep from last year’s disastrous campaign which saw us finish the season with Jose Anigo, a backroom coach that has worked with the academies and U23. The truth is this was a new start. Marinakis gave Diego Martinez the freedom and trust to construct the new generation of Olympiacos. Many players were let go. Contracts like Valbuena’s were not extended and just like that Olympiacos seemed like a completely new team. This once again showed that Olympiacos were changing. Quite unfortunately though, due to our position in the league the year before Olympiacos would have an early start to the season with European qualifiers starting already in August, something which meant we would get the pre-season list announced in mid-late June and boy was it a list! https://x.com/Gate7Intl/status/1676325300844593154?t=7kodiujrVWZA5_zheVk1EA&s=19
It’s crazy to see that we started our preparations with that team and we ended up lifting a European trophy. Crazy!
Despite what we are accustomed to with Olympiacos bringing cascades of players in, we only saw two signings for the upcoming qualifiers that being the two highly experienced Spaniards in Quini and Ibora. Two signings which were brought in as rotational in the long term but had a hugely important task ahead of them in helping Olympiacos secure European football. This again was a sign that the board were not in a rush and wanted to take their time with their signings, something which had to start by securing our European place which would obviously attract more players. Of course the most notable of these early signings has to be that of El Kaabi on a free( which will certainly go down as one of if not the best free transfer we have ever made).
First European task, Qualification
This journey like most Greek teams journey’s started in the summer with the qualifiers, Olympiacos found themselves in the Europa league qualifiers facing against the Belgian side of Genk. The first game was played at Karaiskakis and saw Olympiacos win 1-0 with a goal from Kostas Fortounis in the first minute of the match. The second game proved to be a lot more hectic and not particularly pretty, with Genk winning 2 penalties in the space of 3 minute only to score one and the newly acquired Alexandropoulos scoring a 90+ equaliser to send Olympiacos to the final round of the knockouts whilst also securing European football. The next round turned out to be a lot easier than the first as Olympiacos faced Cukaricki which saw Olympiacos easily progress to the Europa League group stages with an aggregate score of 6-1.
Officially in Europe
Having secured Europa league group stages, Olympiacos could now focus on making some crucial reinforcements. The most notable has to be the return of cult hero, Daniel Podence on a season loan from Wolves. There were also many more departures and arrivals but I won’t go into that right now as that could be a whole 10000 word dissertation but the main thing was that the roster had completely been shuffled and ready for the upcoming season. The draw saw us in a relatively tough group which had the previous season’s Conference League winners West Ham, Germany’s Freiburg who we had met the previous season and finally an unfamiliar name in Backa Topola, a Serbian side making their first ever European appearance. I think the overall mood of us fans was quite a positive one, we certainly knew we had a tough group but were confident that we could beat all these teams on our day and a top 2 finish was definitely in our sights, starting with Freiburg at the Karaiskakis in late September.
A Disappointing Group Stage Campaign
Unfortunately it was not meant to be, Freiburg came victorious with a score of 2-3, a score which was unfair and didn’t really sum up the game as Olympiacos had good spells but due to poor defending and an Individual error from Nicholas Freire cost us the game. Next up was a trip to Serbia to face the Serbian newcomers in their first ever European game. This was a team that almost all Olympiacos fans had down as 6 points, something which turned out to be false. In quite a shocking way, Olympiacos gave away a 2 goal advantage and ultimately gave Topola their first ever draw and point in a European competition. This was a disastrous result for Olympiacos but was something we were expecting in this so called transitioning period of this Olympiacos rebuild, screwups were to be expected along the way but certainly not to a team that had never played in Europe before and certainty in that manner. Olympiacos’s hope of playing in the Europa League after Christmas was now on ropes and meant that no more screw ups could be afforded. Olympiacos were set to face West Ham in a make or break game at the Karaiskaki stadium for the 3rd round of the group stage fixtures. The crowd certainly showed up with an amazing tifo with the words ‘Tonight you dine in hell’ and made Karaiskakis a true fortress. This could certainly have been the reason why we saw Olympiacos’s best performance so far of the season in which they finally looked defensively solid and a beautiful effort from our captain Kosta Fortounis who dribbled past 3 of David Moye’s men to produce a thunder strike to the bottom corner of the goal and ultimately earning Olympiacos’s first 3 points of the season in a hard fought 2-1 win. This unfortunately didn’t prove to be a turning point in our European campaign as the following match day we travelled for the rematch in London where we unfortunately couldn’t produce anything forward and saw us lose 1-0 to the Hammers. Olympiacos now stood with 4 points after 4 games and any chance of him finishing 2nd were close to none. This would inevitably be confirmed by a thrashing from Freiburg away from home which saw us concede 5 goals and with that ending our hopes of continuing in Europa. It had become clear that Olympiacos had a massive problem with that being we couldn’t have a good game at both ends of the field. Whenever we tried going forward we were punished at the back and when we tried keeping a clean sheet nothing would come at the offensive half, our transition play was also poor and saw us give away too many silly mistakes. To some surprise, Diego Martinez was sacked and when I mean surprise I mean that many of us were willing to accept some bad performances for maybe a season if that meant building a proper squad and getting Thrylos back to where he belongs but it seemed that in the blink of an eye the board had abandoned that Idea. This left many fans including myself disappointed as we were tired of changing managers every few months just to go and do that all over again in a few months time. It must be said that we obviously have no idea what was happening behind closed doors and what the situation was like with the players but the disappointment from the outside was still present, and was to remain when the new manager was announced. Carlos Carvalhal was announced Olympiacos head coach shortly after, a somewhat surprising move given he had only really had one successful run as manager that being in the English Championship with Sheffield Wednesday. Speaking from my personal point of view, this was in my opinion the worst point in the season for us. His tenure was filled with boring football which saw us drop too many points in the league that ultimately made watching Olympiacos a chore. As this is an article about the European campaign we must highlight that Carvalhal did come in and successfully beat Topola 5-2 at home securing European knockout games, despite that I felt it was necessary to talk about the league in this case because he only had one European game with us. At last, what seemed like a horror group stage campaign had come to an end but it did secure Olympiacos 3rd place which saw us advance to the conference league for the first time.
Busy Winter and the arrival of a Basque saviour
I will try keep this section short as I had mentioned previously we could talk about the transfers for hours but what is important to give credit to is despite the poor on field results under Carvalhal, the signings under him were quite simply perfect as we would come to realise in a few months as we got to watch more and more of these players. The most notable names were CB David Carmo who joined on loan from Porto after being their most expensive signing, Chiquino, a proper number 8 and Andrea Horta on loan from Braga. As we all know these signings ended up being a huge factor to our success but not the most significant ones, I think we all know who that title falls to. Jose Luis Mendilibar, a name that will stay with millions of Olympiacos fans around the world. Taking over and becoming our 3rd manager of the season, there was some level of excitement across Olympiacos as he was the previous year’s Europa League winner. Somehow in some way Marinakis had managed to convince him to join with a 1+1 deal. With the situation domestically in both the league and being eliminated from the cup, most thought he would just steady the ship till the end of the season where we would ultimately have to go again. Little did we know this is where the most magical journey would begin.
Ferencvaros
Our first Conference League game would be a knockout game to decide who progresses into the next round against the Hungarian Ferencvaros. A pretty average game both legs which surprisingly saw Olympiacos keep two clean sheets whilst a goal from El-Kaabi at each game was more than enough to secure qualification to the next round. Looking back the most significant thing that came out of this game was that it gave us a taste of what Mendillibar can bring to the team and doing so got everyone behind him and the team once more.
Disaster
After a reasonably comfortable qualification against the Hungarians, our next opponent would be Maccabi Tel Aviv. This was always bound to be an interesting matchup as Olympiacos had an extremely poor record against Israeli teams and Maccabi were playing in Serbia due to the situation in Israel. First leg was to be played at home and with a packed Karaiskakis, we we’re ready (please excuse this following section as I have tried to erase all my memories from that night 😂). Something went wrong and they were perfectly set up to capitalise on any mistake we made. Down to 0-2 in the first couple of minutes until El Kaabi found one back only to go ahead and concede another two. 1-4. No words. A wake up call and reminder of how our season had gone so far. I think we all thought our European journey had come to an end, but as Horta reminded Keane's men, the tie wasn't over.
A European Miracle
The following week, the squad and 60 loyal dedicated fans made the journey to a familiar place, that being Topola stadium in Serbia. What followed next will live in the memory of every Olympiacos fan that watched that game. Podence got us on the board early with a crucial goal to try to get us some momentum. Fortunis got another one before one certain Moroccan had to make it 0-3 before half time. A silly challenge gave Zahavi the chance to put Maccabi ahead on aggregate and so he did but it didn’t matter, the Lion had awoken and all the momentum was in our favour El Kaabi made us call him El Kavli with a filthy bicycle kick. Onto extra time and Jovetic decides to send us into dreamland and if that wasn’t enough the El Pistolero had to leave his mark and officially send Olympiacos into the Quarterfinals for only the second time in our history. Whatever happened that night, like the first, I don't know but what I do know is that it will live with me for the rest of my life and that Olympiacos were off to face Fenerbache.
Perfection, only to give it away
The title is a bit harsh, I know, but I just can’t think of another way to highlight how well we played for a majority of that match. Thanks to goals from Fortounis, Jovetic and Chiquinho, Olympiacos found themselves up 3-0 practically securing qualification only to give away two easy goals and make the score 3-2, nevertheless still a win and a 1 goal advantage.
Agios Konstantinos Tsolakis
Olympiacos then travelled to Constantinople for the reverse fixture. The Turks quickly found an answer and it was quickly level. Despite that, Olympiacos hung on for 120 minutes in the intense Sukru Saracoglu stadium and took the game to Penalties. When it comes to penalties you always need some level or luck or in our case a young Greek keeper from Crete. Konstantinos Tsolakis. A name Fener fans are still trying to forget to this day. Despite El Arabi missing and Rodinei giving us flashbacks to previous European’s campaigns, that one man managed to save not one, not two but three penalties, including the deciding penalty from Bonucci. Olympiacos needed a hero that night, and they found that hero in him, sending Olympiacos to the semi finals for the first time and to once again travel to England, only this time to one of this season’s biggest surprises of the Premier league, that being Aston Villa.
El-Ka-Three And A Special May European Night At Our Fortress
In what would arguably be the hardest game yet, Olympiacos were set up with the challenge of facing Aston Villa, the tournament’s favourites. Once again we weren’t all very confident going away to play a team that’s done the double over Arsenal and beat City too so I think a draw would have been a great result. What followed I still can’t digest. Mendillibar and his men went out to Birmingham and decided to stick to their style of football and not try a more defensive style to try to play for a draw. Thanks to two El-Kaabi specials we found ourselves up 0-2 before Watkins showed his class and got one back for the Villans right before halftime. The second half was even more hectic that saw Diaby equalising and Olympiacos winning a penalty for a hand ball on Douglas Luiz which saw El-Kaabi get his third of the night. The Chaos continues with Olympiacos finding a 4th after Hezze’s shot took a deflection and lastly, with a chance for Villa to make the goal difference smaller, Douglas Louiz hit the post meaning that Villa would have to travel to Greece with a big task ahead. This proved too much for them as a heated Karaiskaki and the hunger from Mendillibar’s men to reach the final meant that Villa couldn’t find their way into the game. Olympiacos defended well, kept a clean sheet and scored 2, from who else other than the Moroccan international. Olympiacos were heading to the Conference League final.
One final battle
The days couldn’t have gone by any slower, but nothing could be compared to the pace of the day of the match. As I am sure this is the case with most of you too I couldn’t think straight or in fact do anything without thinking about the game, I would close my eyes picturing the moment Fortounis would lift the Europa Conference league into the night sky of the OPAP arena. As the game got closer, the more nervous I got and that would continue to be the case into the early hours of Thursday as it came to be. Even as I am writing this I can’t help but get emotional, I was fortunate enough to watch the match with the two most important men in my life, my dad and my grandfather. They are without a doubt the reason I am an Olympiacos fan and thinking about past memories watching Olympiacos together just made this whole thing even more special. I don’t remember much of the game, I was so consumed by it that all I remember is some chances like the Tsolakis save or the Ibbora header. By extra time I was quite literally out of it. I couldn’t digest the idea that we could get this close to lose it. I still believe that we weren’t the best team that night as coach Mendillibar admitted after the match also, but as many people had said it was destiny. Just as we had done throughout this journey we always persevered and never gave up. From Maccabi to Fener, it finally seemed that luck was by our side; Masoura’s press conference after the game at Constantinople were being echoed in my head, surely this would truly be the fairytale ending but it needed a hero, and what hero other than the one and only Moroccan striker, El Kaabi. I have probably seen the goal about 50 times now, in every possible language you could imagine, from every possible angle and the feeling remains the same as the one I experienced when I witnessed it live. The most beautiful of goals. From the 36 year old Ibbora putting all his energy to win that header in the 116th minute to Hezze who just never stopped running to whip it in and for El Kaabi, like a true lion, put his head in the most dangerous and difficult of places to push the ball into the net and send the red and white fans behind the goal, across Pireaus, Greece and the world into an unimaginable state of euphoria. Someone said before the game that everyone, wether they were inside the stadium or not, carried with them their own story, their own red and white story of how they started supporting the team or some memorable moments watching the Thrylos with people who may not be here with us anymore who were actually here in spirit. The most beautiful of nights was to never end as the party carried on till the morning hours and continues to this day as I am writing this as the 2 European trophies are touring Greece and Cyprus.
Looking Forward
With Olympiacos having had a flawless start to the season so far with 3/3 wins in the league I think this sets the tone for what the team are aiming to do this season. On the 100 year anniversary of the club, both the manager and owner Mr Marinakis have not made their ambitions a secret with both making it clear that the goal is for Olympiacos to return to the top of Greece and claim their 48th title. It sure promises to be an entertaining year with big names like David Carmo returning to the squad and the addition of Willian promises to keep us entertained with his Brazilian flare. I truly believe we are capable of doing the double and having a good European campaign under the guidance of Mendillibar. Although we might have lost some key players, I am confident that the additions to the squad will be enough to see us achieve our goals this season and this is why I truly would recommend to everyone to follow Olympiacos this season not only on football but on other ends too like basketball which with the additions of Sasha and Fournier we are now one of the favourites for the Euroleague title. The anniversary year promises to be a special one and as the football team comes in with the momentum of winning two European titles, things look to be heading for another very special season.
Thank you so much for taking time to have a read of my thoughts about this crazy European campaign and the upcoming season. Be sure to stay updated on all things Olympiacos by giving us a follow at Thrylos 7 International on social media and also subscribing on our YouTube channel for live shows on all things Olympiacos in English.
-Giorgos Chalkias
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