Anderlecht extended their unbeaten home run to 23 games thanks to Serigne Mbodji’s strike midway through the second-half of last week’s last-32 first leg encounter with Olympiacos.
The 1-0 reverse saw the Greeks slide to back-to-back defeats for the first time this season despite enjoying 61% possession in Brussels whilst winning both the shot count (11-8) and corner count (9-4) at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium.
But Marco Silva’s men remain bullishly confident they can overturn that deficit as they welcome the Purple & Whites to Piraeus. Olympiacos are awesome operators at their Stadio Georgios Karaiskaki home with passionate supporters creating one of the most hostile atmospheres on the continent.
The Legend have won 13 of their previous 18 home Champions League group-games and beaten the likes of Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Benfica, Dortmund and Arsenal when returning stunning W17-D0-L6 figures in front of their adoring fans since 2008 in Europe’s premier club competition.
Olympiacos have scored in 13 of their most recent 16 home games in Champions League action, have netted 57 goals in 23 Greek Super League matches this season and only failed to notch against the mighty Bayern Munich and Arsenal as hosts.
The Greeks defeated Anderlecht 3-1 at home just two seasons ago and a similar result looks well within their grasp here.
Anderlecht were runners-up to Spurs in Group J as they managed to see off an uninterested Monaco to make it to the knockout stages.
However, they do have a very poor record at this stage of the competition, losing five of their seven Last-32 games since 2010/11 and failing to score in five of these matches. The Belgians have been beaten in four of their last five away trips in this competition and returned W1-D6-L7 from their last 13 continental ties outside of Brussels.
Besnik Hasi’s side are also struggling domestically as they’re third in the Pro League behind Club Brugge and Gent with their road trip toils seeing the visitors slide to W2-D3-L3 across their last eight games as guests across all competitions.