Why Premier League conquerors Olympiacos’ European success is no miracle after Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool triumphs

OLYMPIACOS have officially made history as the first ever Greek club to win a European trophy.

The Greek giants also became the first team to win a Uefa honour outside of the world’s top five league competitions since 2011 after beating Fiorentina 1-0 in the Europa Conference League final at rivals AEK Athens’ OPAP Arena ground.

Many have understandably coined the Piraeus outfit’s success as a miracle, but there is a lot more to it.

The Greek Superleague has made headlines around the world often in recent years for all the wrong reasons due to fan violence and alleged corruption.

In turn, football fans around the globe wrongfully dubbed Greek football with a series of unflattering monikers, such as “farmers’ league”.

But Olympiacos transcend the Greek league and their recent track record proves that as they have made it out of the group stages of a major European competition in 14 out of their last 16 attempts.

Under Evangelos Marinakis, who took over the club in 2010 and won 10 Superleague titles as well as four domestic Doubles, the team has made it out of the group stages of a major Uefa competition 11 times out of the last 13 attempts.

And all of that has been under a Greek budget at a time when Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and US money is taking over football.

Olympiacos have evolved into a European club that has also picked up some major scalps along the way from Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and more.

All of the above also fell at the fiery Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium which poses as a powerful fortress filled with passionate, rowdy and loud fans who have been the backbone of this club since its creation in 1925 and always demand nothing less than perfection.

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The Red and White have bested a series of Premier League clubs along the way, such as Liverpool whom they beat 1-0 in 2004 in their first ever European match at Karaiskakis, a few months before the miracle of Istanbul.

Olympiacos went on to overcome the likes of Manchester United, Burnley, West Ham and Aston Villa, while Tottenham, Chelsea and Wolves couldn’t win in Piraeus.

But no Prem club has ever struggled more against Marinakis’ club than Arsenal.

So far the two clubs count six wins each against one another with none of their 12 previous meetings ending in a draw.

In fact, Olympiacos have beaten Arsenal three times at the Emirates, which is more than the Gunners’ home losses to rivals Tottenham who have only won twice across all their visits at that ground.

The Greeks rose to prominence in Europe largely thanks to a series of milestones they have reached in recent years, all of which set new standards that were never lowered.

Arsenal pose as one of those unforgettable nights as they became the first ever English club Olympiacos ever beat away in 2015 after a 3-2 victory at the Emirates.

The Gunners also became the first Premier League club the port city outfit eliminated in the knockout stages of a major competition in 2020 when they knocked them out of the Europa League’s Round of 32.

How it all started

But the night that truly changed everything took place in 2007 in Germany when the pride of Piraeus finally won an away game in the Champions League following 10 unsuccessful years.

The unfancied conquerors defeated Werder Bremen 3-1 at the Weserstadion and never looked back since.

Olympiacos, though, for years couldn’t even tie their previous best finishes that saw them making the quarter-finals of the Champions League and Europa League in 1999 and 1993 respectively.

That came to an end this year in the Europa Conference League, and they did it in style as they eliminated Maccabi Tel Aviv from the Last 16 with the greatest comeback victory in Greek football history as they won 6-1 away after an embarrassing 4-1 loss at home.

Other than the title win in Nea Filadelfia, Villa pose as the most recent milestone as Unai Emery’s side became the first ever Prem side Olympiacos eliminated by winning both legs – a 4-2 in at Villa Park and a 2-0 victory in the return fixture.

But those milestones wouldn’t have happened without all the hard work that went into the club the last few years with Marinakis – also owner of Nottingham Forest – adhering to European standards since his arrival at the wheel.

Jose Luis Mendilibar’s impact

Managers like Ernesto Valverde, Marco Silva, Pedro Martins and now Jose Luis Mendilibar have left bits of their philosophy deeply ingrained into the club’s mentality, philosophy and character.

Mendilibar especially transformed Olympiacos in just three months and has already made a strong case as the club’s greatest ever manager ahead of past legends like the aforementioned tacticians as well as Dusan Bajevic and Marton Bukovi.

The Spanish tactician brought his experience and winners’ mentality a year after winning the Europa League with Sevilla but simply unlocked the best of the abilities of every star he already had at his disposal, unlike predecessors Diego Martinez and Carlos Carvalhal.

Mendilibar found the likes of Kostas Tzolakis, Santiago Hezze, Rodinei, Vicente Iborra, Francisco Ortega as well as Ayoub El Kaabi and just let them play their game by implementing his own philosophy while reinstating some much-needed confidence to the team.

The Basque head coach was also helped by the club’s greatest ever January transfer window that saw the likes of David Carmo, Chiquinho and Andre Horta taking things to the next level.

Veterans like Giorgos Masouras, Youssef El Arabi and captain Kostas Fortounis also kept the standards sky high in the meantime with their past experience of European success.

Star signings

The club’s structure has attracted a number of stars thanks to its own star quality which is headed by Champions League and World Cup winner Christian Karembeu, who has been working with the club since 2013 as an ambassador.

That led to the signings of Mathieu Valbuena, Esteban Cambiasso, Marcelo, Eric Abidal and Daniel Podence, who came back for another stint last summer on loan from Wolves.

The work Olympiacos have put in behind the scenes was proven this season when the Under-19s became the first ever Greek club to win the Uefa Youth League.

Marinakis’ investment and support shown for the likes of Jose Anigo and Thomas Benedet who ran the academies as well as youth manager Sotiris Silaidopoulos also led to two league titles in the last two years.

There was a method and logic into this year’s miracle, which coincidentally took place 20 years after Greece’s stunning Euro 2004 triumph.

SunSport previously analysed the Greek national team’s triumph all those years ago which carried many similarities to Olympiacos’ recent success.

Learning from Euro 2004 failures

And the Superleague outfit will now need to avoid the same mistakes that saw Greece decaying and missing out on all major competitions in the last 10 years, including the upcoming Euros.

Olympiacos have been raising the bar for years, and now it has been higher than ever.

Thus, the demands have shattered whatever glass ceiling there was and there is a major hangover awaiting the club, who won’t have to worry about qualifiers for the first time since 2015 as they made it straight into next season’s Europa League.

Greece lost their first match after Euro 2004 at Albania and missed out on the 2006 World Cup before completely dropping their standards following the 2014 World Cup.

Marinakis has claimed those standards will be raised even higher as he suggested the Europa League is on Olympiacos’ sights next, and that’s exactly what needs to be done to follow such a hard act as this past season.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk