Europa League

[monks data]

Europa League | Round of 16

Aug 6, 2020 at 8pm UK

Molineux Stadium

Wolves
1 - 0
Olympiacos

Jimenez (9' pen.)
Moutinho (38'), Podence (71'), Jimenez (90+4')

FT(HT: 1-0)

Tsimikas (45+1'), Ba (45+4'), Abou Cisse (75')

Preview: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Olympiacos - prediction, team news, lineups

By Darren Plant, Senior Reporter | 04 August 2020

Sports Mole previews Thursday's Europa League last-16 tie between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Olympiacos, including team news and predicted lineups.

Wolverhampton Wanderers and Olympiacos meet at Molineux on Thursday evening with their Europa League last-16 tie locked at 1-1 on aggregate.

Whoever progresses from the fixture later this week will take on either Roma or Sevilla in the quarter-finals.

Match preview

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Nuno Espirito Santo pictured on March 12, 2020 © Reuters

Despite being well-positioned to earn Europa League football next season through the Premier League, Wolves now find themselves in a situation where they must win the competition to earn a second successive year on the continent.

Three defeats from six matches resulted in Nuno Espirito Santo's team dropping down to seventh position, which proved not enough for European qualification after Arsenal's FA Cup triumph.

Nuno and his players are now tasked with trying to negotiate a difficult draw to win this tournament, success which would earn the club a first ever spot in the Champions League.

Based on their most recent efforts in pivotal matches, that appears unlikely at this stage, but Wolves have shown in the past that they are capable of responding to adversity.

At a time when he is being linked with a big money elsewhere, Raul Jimenez will hope to improve on a run of just two goals from his last seven outings.

While Wolves are currently enduring a low point, Olympiacos are experiencing emotions on the opposite end of the scale having won the Greek top flight by 18 points.

Although there was disappointment after narrowly missing out on an unbeaten campaign through a last-minute goal to nearest challengers PAOK on July 12, Olympiacos responded with back-to-back 3-0 wins.

That would have reassured Pedro Martins that his players are in the right frame of mind ahead of a trip to England, their third such journey since November.

After pushing Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League earlier in this season, Olympiacos recorded a famous win versus Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in February.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Europa League form: WDWWLD
Wolverhampton Wanderers form (all competitions): LLWDWL

Olympiacos Europa League form: LWD
Olympiacos form (all competitions): WDWLWW

Team News

Wolverhampton Wanderers' Joao Moutinho during the match on November 7, 2019 © Reuters

Having began the game against Chelsea among the replacements, Joao Moutinho will almost certainly be handed a recall.

With Wolves ahead on away goals, Nuno could opt to go with a 3-5-2 formation, resulting in Adama Traore beginning on the substitutes' bench.

Diogo Jota is likely to get the nod over Pedro Neto and former Olympiacos man Daniel Podence in the final third.

Olympiacos will be without centre-back Ruben Semedo, who was sent off during the first half of the first leg.

Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Patricio; Boly, Coady, Saiss; Doherty, Dendoncker, Moutinho, Neves, Jonny; Jota, Jimenez

Olympiacos possible starting lineup:
Sa; Elabdellaoui, Ba, Cisse, Tsimikas; Guilherme, Bouchalakis, Camara; Valbuena, El-Arabi, Masouras

We say: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Olympiacos

Having failed to qualify for next season's competition, there will be a few nerves within the Wolves side during this game. Nevertheless, they are due a response after their poor performance last time out, and we feel that they should just do enough to edge out Olympiacos on this occasion.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wolverhampton Wanderers win with a probability of 43.48%. A win for Olympiacos had a probability of 30.74% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.

The most likely scoreline for a Wolverhampton Wanderers win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.28%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.98%) and 2-0 (7.54%). The likeliest Olympiacos win was 0-1 (8.36%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.25%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 10.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Wolverhampton Wanderers in this match.