Martinez and the Olympiacos players didn’t hear the bells

On the eve of the game against Freiburg, Martinez claimed: “Olympiacos has improved compared to the first game and is more mature“. He added that “We are a more cautious team that will not make the same mistakes that were made back then.” However, the red-whites in Germany showed nothing of this. No maturity, no concentration, no passion, no determination, no, no, no… As far as mistakes go, there were many this time too.

The worst thing for the Olympiacos coach and players is that they didn’t learn from the mistake of the first game or from last year’s mistakes against the same team. Freiburg scored three goals in Faliro two months ago and scored another five at home without creating many chances and without much effort. He did the obvious and scored where the red and white hurt.

The players of the Piraeus team again conceded goals at the beginning of the game (in total, last year and this year against Freiburg, Olympiacos Piraeus took the ball out of the net four times in the first minutes in four games) as they again conceded goals from set pieces (In total they scored five goals in four games with the German team).

Furthermore, it was Gregoric who scored a hat-trick in the first half by doing everything the Olympiacos defense wanted and had scored two goals for the Piraeus team in the game in Karaiskakis last season. Martinez and the red and white footballers knew exactly what was coming and should have been adequately prepared both competitively and mentally, but…

Olympiacos endured one of the worst nights in Europe

So Olympiacos Piraeus suffered one of its worst European nights, and all from a team that sits ninth in the Bundesliga, and not from any giant. But it’s not about Freiburg, it’s about the red and whites.

The bells of Olympiacos had been ringing for some time, but the messages were not taken seriously. First it was the game against Backa Topola, in which the team from Piraeus took a 2-0 lead in Serbia, but ended up with a draw.

At the same time, the Red and Whites were unable to keep a clean sheet at home: three goals from Freiburg in the start of the Europa League group phase, two from Bacska Topola and now five goals from the German team at home.

Only against West Ham did the red and whites show character, winning once (2:1) and losing in detail (0:1) in London, where they scored a goal with Mandi Kamara.

Such a defense function doesn’t get you very far in Europe

However, a team with such defensive function and so many individual errors cannot go far in European competitions. On Gregoric’s first goal, Retsos was “stuck” in his coverage. For the Austrian’s second goal, Alexandropoulos was not in the right position, which meant the former’s header went unchallenged. On Gregoric’s third goal, Doe and Retsu’s placements were incorrect.

On the fourth goal, Ortega didn’t clear the ball properly from the defense, Gregoric took it and passed it to the unmarked Sildija on the right, who scored with a diagonal shot. And on the fifth goal, Ese, who opened the control, didn’t shoot properly and Doan found the opportunity to send the ball into Paschalakis’ net.

At the same time, Martinez preferred to field three central midfielders (Ese, Kamara, Alexandropoulos), but they struggled against Freiburg’s two (Egestein, Hefler), which he seemed to regret early on when he substituted Ibora for the warm-up. only in the 20th minute.

With the Spaniard’s use as a third stopper in the second half, the situation seemed to calm down a bit, but it is true that Freiburg switched gears and Christian Streich made changes to protect some key players.

How will the red and white react?

The problem for Olympiakos is that after PAOK’s four goals in Karaiskakis, they conceded five goals from Freiburg in Germany and their image was heartbreaking. So it remains to be seen how the red and whites will react after the renewed shock.

It is also obvious that Olympiacos depends heavily on Fortounis’ performance and efficiency, but one player alone cannot lead a team, especially in European competitions. Podense missed two good chances that came their way in the first half, El Kaabi did not pose a threat, Masouras had a good chance and El Arabi played a quarter of a minute as a substitute after a while.

Now Olympiacos face the “final” against Batska Topola in Karaiskaki, a game where two results are favorable (win or draw) and it is up to them to book their ticket to the knockout games of the Conference League to back up.