Kifisia vs. Olympiacos: Super League Greece Preview

Olympiacos will travel to the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium to play a ninth round fixture of the Super League Greece against home side AE Kifisia FC on Saturday.

The Piraeus have had a very successful start to the season, registering 6 victories and one draw and one loss each in 8 games, accumulating 19 points. This places them 2 points behind league leaders and rivals Panathinaikos at 2nd place on the league charts. 

The Red and Whites are coming off a 2-0 victory registered over Marko in the Greek Cup, and a comprehensive 5-0 victory against Kalamata in their last outing in the league, a game that saw striker Jota Silva scored a 9- minute hat-trick, and summer signings Leon Bailey and Marius Mouandilmadji score their first goals for the club. 

The match against Marko saw players like Manolis Saliakas and David Carmo step up as they helped pull Olympiacos over the line in a fixture that saw the team keep their clean streak alive, showcasing the defensive prowess of the players. This was their 8th consecutive clean sheet across all competitions, and points towards the fact that goalkeeper Stefan Ortega is in excellent form.

With a tough run of fixtures coming up in subsequent weeks, manager Imanol Alguacil will have to consider shuffling his squad in order to help the players remain in top condition when the Europa League fixture and Rennes and the derby against PAOK come their way. However, the manager and the players cannot afford to take the match against Kifisia lightly, as the club has always been somewhat of a thorn in the flesh for Olympiacos. In their last 3 meetings, Thrylos were able to win two, and draw one game. However, none of the performances were comprehensive, and the team required penalties and last-minute goals to scrape through.

On the other hand, Kifisia’s last Greek Cup fixture against Levadiakos stood cancelled. Therefore, the last game they played was the one against Asteras Tripolis in the Greek Cup, a match that Kifisia won 2-0, courtesy of goals from Dimitris Theodoridis and Jordi Mboula.
In their last league outing, the Blue and Whites managed to register a 3-2 win over Iraklis. This victory was their third of the season, and put them on 7th place on the points table. Jeremy Antonisse opened the scoring in the 33rd- minute, followed by strikes from Jorge Pombo in the 77th- minute and Ángelo Sagal in the 86th- minute.

Team News
For Olympiacos, forward Ayoub El Kaabi and midfielder Yusuf Yazici will not be able to take the ground against Kifisia as they are out due to injury. However, apart from these players, manager Imanol Alguacil will have the rest of his squad at his disposal.

On the part of Kifisia, manager Sebastián Leto will have to field a team devoid of the services of midfielders Ioannis Kousoulos and Giannis Doiranlis, and centre-back Jon de Luis.

Prediction
As things stand, Olympiacos look to be the favourites to win the game. However, looking at the results of the recent clashes between the two teams, it is hard to predict a scoreline with a huge difference in the number of goals scored. A 1-0 victory for Thrylos can be predicted.