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Osmanlıspor v Olympiacos background

Following a scoreless first leg, Olympiacos's task at Osmanlıspor looks even more difficult in the context of Greek clubs' lean run of results against Turkish opposition.

Olympiacos midfielder Sebá vies for possession with Luíz Carlos of Osmanlıspor
Olympiacos midfielder Sebá vies for possession with Luíz Carlos of Osmanlıspor ©AFP/Getty Images

Olympiacos travel to Ankara needing to reverse several negative trends if they are to get past Osmanlıspor in a still-goalless UEFA Europa League round of 32 contest.

• The first instalment of this tie finished in stalemate, though Osmanlıspor had the numerical advantage after Olympiacos defender Bruno Viana was red-carded with 17 minutes to play at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis.

Previous meetings
• The clubs met for the first time in the opening leg on 16 February, which was Osmanlıspor's first encounter with Greek opponents.

• Olympiacos's four games against Turkish sides have ended W1 D1 L2 (W1 D1 at home, L2 in Turkey).

• Turkish teams have had the better of the 20 UEFA club competition matches between the neighbouring nations' teams: W9 D7 L4. Only one of the most recent 14 of those fixtures produced a Greek victory – PAOK's 1-0 defeat of Fenerbahçe in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play-offs.

Form guide
• Osmanlıspor's European home form in 2016/17 is excellent: W5 D1, conceding in just one of those six games in Ankara.

Watch six stunning European goals by Turkish teams

• Olympiacos's away form this term has been mixed: W2 D1 L2.

• This is Osmanlıspor's second European campaign and their most successful by some distance. They fell at the first hurdle, as Ankaraspor, in the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup – their only previous tilt.

• Olympiacos have fallen at the first springtime hurdle in the last four seasons, since making it to the UEFA Europa League round of 16 in 2011/12.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Piraeus to Ankara is a little over 800km.

• Olympiacos's Óscar Cardozo (2014–16) played alongside Osmanlıspor's Hakan Arıkan (2015) and Aykut Demir (2013–16) during their respective stints at Trabzonspor.

• Olympiacos's Manuel da Costa also has Turkish experience (Sivasspor, 2013–15).

Olympiacos forward Óscar Cardozo during his Trabzonspor days
Olympiacos forward Óscar Cardozo during his Trabzonspor days©Getty Images

• Olympiacos's Felipe Pardo and Osmanlıspor's Raul Rusescu played together at Braga in 2013/14. Rusescu had worked with Olympiacos's Diogo Figueiras and Marko Marin at Sevilla in the first half of that season.

• Osmanlıspor's Raheem Lawal and Aminu Umar play alongside Olympiacos forward Brown Ideye for Nigeria.

• Olympiacos are one of eight domestic champions involved in the round of 32, along with Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL), APOEL (CYP), København (DEN), Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR), Legia Warszawa (POL), Astra Giurgiu (ROU) and Beşiktaş (TUR).

• Osmanlıspor and Genk are the only sides to have progressed from the second qualifying round of this season's competition to the round of 32; APOEL, Beer-Sheva, Legia, Ludogorets and København have had similarly long campaigns, having started out in the equivalent round of the UEFA Champions League.

• Olympiacos midfielder Tarik Elyounoussi turns 29 the day of this game.

The coaches
• Hired in July 2015, Mustafa Akçay earned Osmanlıspor European qualification with a fifth-place finish last term. He had been in charge of a number of lower-profile teams in Turkey before guiding Trabzonspor through the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Paulo Bento was appointed by Olympiacos in August 2016 following a brief interlude in Brazil. A player for Benfica and Sporting CP in his native Lisbon, he later won two Portuguese Cups as Sporting coach and was Portugal boss from September 2010 to September 2014.

• Bento was Portugal coach when his side lost 3-1 to Turkey in a June 2012 friendly – the Crescent Stars' first victory against Portugal.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Neither Osmanlıspor nor Olympiacos have featured in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.