Olympiacos looks to hand St. Etienne their “ASSE” in France

By: Chris Pavlakos | February 25th, 2009

Olympiacos are in a deep hole as we head to the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to take on Saint Étienne tomorrow afternoon (or night if you are in Europe).

Tough Task
If you are an Olympiacos supporter, I don’t have to tell you that being down 3-1 on aggregate and needing a 3 goal win away is a more difficult task than a chinese kid trying to win a staring contest. As if needing 3 goals away was not enough, we have an insane schedule coming up that includes the most important match of the year, Panathinaikos at home, and two games with PAOK. Deep hole on aggregate and congested schedule aside, we will be without three regular starters in this match. Belluschi, Galletti, and Avraam will not play and this creates a lot of problems for Ernesto “viva la vida” Valverde. Galletti is the heart and soul of our team, Belluschi’s flair at CAM is integral to attack, and Avraam has been a rock at CB.

Starting XI
Nikopolidis, Kovac, Pantos, Torosidis, Patsatzoglou, Djordjevic, Antzas, Zewlakow, Mitroglou, Dudu, Leto, Derbyshire, Oscar, Leonardo, Mendrinos, Diogo, and Galitsios are the players available for Valverde’s use tomorrow.

If he sticks to his normal 4-5-1 with two DMs I would expect to see the following starting XI:

…………………………………………….Nikopolidis

Gallitsios………………………….Zewlakow……Antzas…………………………………Pantos

……………………………………Patsatzoglou….Dudu

Torosidis…………………………………….Oscar………………………………………….Leto

………………………………………………..Diogo

I would like to see Valverde go for the win (for once) and play a 4-4-2 from the start like so:

…………………………………………….Nikopolidis

Torosidis………………………..Zewlakow……Antzas………………………….Leonardo

………………………………………………..Dudu

Patsatzoglou………………………………..Oscar………………………………………….Leto

…………………………………….Derbyshire…..Diogo

Prediction
Even though I would love to see Valverde come out with a 4-4-2 and for us to score 3 goals and win it I just cant see it happening with all of the injuries. We will come out with two DMs and not be able to get anything going offensively. Final score will be 1-1 and our run at the UEFA Cup will be over… or I could be wrong and we could win 3-0 and go happy into March awaiting a date with AC Milan. Damn, I hope I’m wrong.