Group C
Kick-off: 19:45 (BST)
An understrength Real Madrid will have their hands full ccoping with an Olympiakos side on a high following their first ever away victory in the Champions League.
With both teams level on four points in Group C, there is plenty to play for tonight.
Real coach Bernd Schuster suffered his first league loss as Madrid coach on Saturday, 2-1 at Espanyol.
“We had to lose one day, one way or another,” Schuster said. “We aren’t permitted the luxury of feeling too sorry for ourselves because we don’t have time. I’ve forgotten about Espanyol now because another team is coming.”
Madrid will be without Fabio Cannavaro and Mahamadou Diarra because of knee injuries. Gabriel Heinze and Arjen Robben are out with thigh problems suffered on international duty and long-term absentee Pepe will also be missign.
“The team will have to be changed but I’m not worried,” the coach said. “I’ve no doubt that [midfielder] Fernando Gago is going to help us in many ways. I don’t like being without players but we will field a team that’s perfectly capable of beating Olympiakos. I have full confidence in the team I will put out.”
“It’s difficult to know which face they will show us because the side that played against Lazio was different from that which played against Bremen,” continued Schuster. “It’s important that we respect their team. We know they will try to make it difficult for us. We know Olympiacos are more often than not favourites to win in the Greek league. They’ve added Luciano Galletti, Darko Kovacevic and Raul Bravo so it will be a difficult game.”
Olympiakos coach Panagiotis Lemonis is missing Didier Domi, Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Michalis Konstantinou as the visitors look to build on their surprise victory at Werder Bremen.
“Things have come on a lot for us,” Lemonis said. “We were delighted to win our first UEFA Champions League game outside Greece, which lifted a lot of pressure off us. We now realise that we can win no matter where we play and this is an important factor in our dressing room.”
“There is no fear,” the coach added. “Respect is something different, the respect we have to have for our opponents. Our attitude is that after each game we want to feel satisfied with our performance and work well done. The collective feeling we have right now is that we want to go on to that pitch and fight for everything.”
