Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest continue their pre-season schedule with a showdown at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium on Thursday.
With both clubs being owned by Evangelos Marinakis, this was a natural fixture to make ahead of the new campaigns in Greece and England.
Match preview
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At the end of last season, the jury remained out over whether Nuno Espirito Santo was and is the right man to be Forest head coach, yet the club's hierarchy have made the decision to back the Portuguese in the transfer market.
Portugal international Jota Silva is the latest player to make the move to the City Ground, joining other high-profile additions such as Nikola Milenkovic and Elliot Anderson.
More signings will no doubt follow, but Forest and Nuno can be satisfied with their pre-season results given the level of opposition and environment that they have played in.
The 1-0 defeat at Elche came at the end of a gruelling pre-season tour of Spain in intense heat, before they returned home to play out a goalless draw with Villarreal.
This contest represents their last of pre-season before they commence the 2024-25 campaign with a home fixture against Bournemouth on August 17.
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From the perspective of Olympiacos, they have been looking to build on their historic 2023-24, a result of their triumph in the Europa Conference League.
That success was a famous end to an otherwise disappointing year, but it laid the foundations for Jose Luis Mendilibar to try to build a squad capable of reclaiming the Super League title.
As well as Marko Stamenic arriving on loan from Forest, the likes of defender Lorenzo Pirola and forward Roman Yaremchuk are notable additions from Salernitana and Club Brugge respectively.
Olympiacos have played a total of six friendlies thus far, most recently posting a 1-1 draw against Roma to extend their unbeaten streak to five games.
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Team News
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Having made just two substitutions against Roma, Mendilibar is expected to ring the changes to his Olympiacos starting lineup.
Yaremchuk should start down the middle of the attack, with new arrival Costinha taking his place at right-back.
Gelson Martins and Georgios Masouras are also notable names to come into the side on the flanks.
While Nuno may not make as many alterations, there will be numerous different personnel taking their spot in the Forest XI.
New goalkeeper Carlos Miguel should start between the sticks, as should Anderson in midfield, while Ryan Yates and Nicolas Dominguez are other players who are in line to feature.
Olympiacos possible starting lineup:
Paschalakis; Costinha, Abbey, Retsos, Apostolopoulos; Mouzakatis, Bakoulas; Martins, Ntoi, Masouras; Yaremchuk
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Miguel; Williams, Omobamidele, Boly, Toffolo; Yates, Dominguez; Elanga, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi; Awoniyi
We say: Olympiacos 1-2 Nottingham Forest
With each side wanting to make a statement ahead of 2024-25, we expect a competitive tussle between two well-match teams. Although Olympiacos boast home advantage, Forest are building under Nuno, leading us to predict a hard-fought victory for the Premier League outfit.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Darren Plant
