Olympiacos vs Maccabi Tel Aviv facts

Olympiacos host Maccabi Tel Aviv in Piraeus in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16 tie.

The Greek side finished third in UEFA Europa League Group A before defeating Ferencváros in their knockout round play-off tie, winning 1-0 home and away with Ayoub El Kaabi scoring in both matches.

Maccabi qualified as Group B winners, triumphing in five of their six games to finish two points clear of Belgian side Gent.

Previous meetings

Olympiacos wins 1
Maccabi Tel Aviv wins 1
Draws 0
Olympiacos goals 2
Maccabi Tel Aviv goals 2

The two sides met in the 2010/11 Europa League third qualifying round, Olympiacos winning 2-1 in the home first leg but bowing out on away goals after a a 1-0 Maccabi victory in Tel Aviv.

Form guide

Olympiacos

Record vs Israeli clubs: W1 D3 L4 F6 A14
Home record vs Israeli clubs: W1 D2 L1

Olympiacos are without a win in their last five matches against Israeli opposition (D2 L3).

They last played a team from Israel in last season's UEFA Champions League second qualifying round when they lost 5-1 on aggregate to Maccabi Haifa (1-1 a, 0-4 h).

For a second successive season the Greek side have failed to qualify from their Europa League section, finishing third in Group A behind West Ham United and Freiburg. They had progressed to the knockout in each of their previous three appearances.

Despite impressive home wins against West Ham (2-1) and TSC Bačka Topola (5-2), Olympiacos finished five points behind second-placed Freiburg who beat them in Greece (2-3) and Germany (0-5). They also drew 2-2 away to TSC and conceded in the last minute to lose 1-0 at West Ham.

The team from Piraeus played in the 2021/22 Europa League knockout round play-offs, when a second-placed finish in a group containing Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahçe and Antwerp landed them a tie against Italian side Atalanta. Despite taking the lead in the first leg in Bergamo they lost 2-1 and then went down 3-0 at home.

A third-placed finish in the 2022/23 Greek Super League ended a run of three straight titles for Olympiacos, before Europa League qualifying victories against Genk (1-0 h, 1-1 a) and Čukarički (3-1 h, 3-0 a) took them into the group stage.

The Red and Whites have won their last three European home games having lost the previous five in the Europa League, group stage to final.

Olympiacos parted company with coach Diego Martínez on 5 December and appointed Carlos Carvalhal the following day. Carvalhal himself departed on 8 February, with José Luís Mendilibar, who coached Sevilla to victory in last season's Europa League, named as his replacement three days later.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Record vs Greek clubs: W8 D0 L4 F18 A9
Away record vs Greek clubs: W2 D0 L4

Maccabi last faced Greek opposition in last season's Europa Conference League third qualifying round when they beat Aris Thessaloniki 3-2 on aggregate (2-0 h, 1-2 a).

The second-leg loss at Aris last season made in four defeats in their last five away games against Greek clubs.

Having featured in the inaugural Europa Conference League in 2021/22, qualifying from their group after a second-place finish before losing to PSV Eindhoven in the knockout round play-offs (0-1 a, 1-1 h), Maccabi missed out on the group stage last season after a qualifying play-off defeat against Nice (1-0 h, 0-2 a aet).

This season they remained unbeaten in their six qualifiers, beating Petrocub (3-0 h, 2-0 a), AEK Larnaca (1-1 a, 1-0 h) and Celje (4-1 h, 1-1 a) to return to the group stage.

The Israeli side opened Group B with a 3-2 win at home to Iceland's Breidablik before going down 2-0 at Gent. They then reeled off four successive victory, winning 3-1 away and 3-2 at home against Zorya Luhansk of Ukraine and 2-1 at Breidablik, overtaking Gent thanks to a 3-1 home win against the Belgian side on Matchday 6.

The Yellows have lost just four of their 16 away matches in the Europa Conference League (W6 D6).

Links and trivia

Olympiacos's Doron Leidner played for Hapoel Tel Aviv between 2019 and 2022. He played eight times against Maccabi, losing six with the other two drawn.

Konstantinos Fortounis was in the Olympiacos side beaten by Israel's Hapoel Beer Sheva in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (0-0 h, 0-1 a).

Georgios Masouras faced Maccabi when he was playing for Panionios in the 2017/18 Europa League third qualifying round. The Greek side lost both games 1-0.

Vicente Iborra played two games against Maccabi in the Europa League group stage in 2020/21 when he was at Villarreal, who won 4-0 at home on Matchday 3 before a 1-1 draw in Israel.