Olympiacos v Atlético background

Club Atlético de Madrid were just two minutes away from winning the UEFA Champions League in May. Now last season's runners-up start all over again in their opening Group A fixture at Olympiacos FC.

Previous meetings
• Atlético prevailed 4-2 on aggregate in the clubs' only past encounter in the 1992/93 European Cup Winners Cup' quarter-finals.

• The teams for a 1-1 first-leg draw in Athens were:
Olympiacos: Mirtsos, Pachatouridis, Karataidis, Mitsibonas, Vlachos (Savidis 61), Tsalouchidis, Mavrommatis, Tsiantakis (Sofianopoulos 75), Lima, Karapialis, Vaitsis.
Atlético: Resino, López, Toni, Solozábal, Ferreira, Juanito, Alfredo (Tomás 83), Schuster, Moya, Manuel Alfaro (Orejuela 87), Luis García.

Match background

Olympiacos
• Reached the round of 16 last season where they beat Manchester United FC 2-0 at home before falling 3-0 at Old Trafford.

• Lost their opening group match 4-1 at home to Paris Saint-Germain on 16 September last term, but then beat SL Benfica, RSC Anderlecht and United at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis.

• Olympiacos won a fourth consecutive Greek Super League title in 2014.

• The Thrylos have lost five and drawn one of their last six matches against Spanish sides.

• Their last victory against Liga opposition was a 2-1 home success against Real Madrid CF in the 2005/06 group stage, Rivaldo hitting the 87th-minute winner.

Atlético
• Atlético led last season's final against neighbours Real Madrid in Lisbon until the 93rd minute, before losing 4-1 after extra time. It was their best European Cup campaign since finishing runners-up to FC Bayern München in 1974.

• Diego Simeone's men won their tenth Liga title in 2014 – their first Spanish crown since 1996.

• Unbeaten in all six UEFA Champions League away games in 2013/14, they won at FC Porto, FK Austria Wien, AC Milan and Chelsea FC.

• Their away record in Greece is W1 D2 L3. The Rojiblancos' only win was 3-2 at Panathinaikos FC in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League play-offs.

• Raúl García, Diego Godín, Tiago and substitute Mario Suárez played in Atlético's 1-0 loss at Aris FC in their opening game of the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

Player links
• As a Real Madrid player, Olympiacos coach Míchel faced Atlético 25 times between 1984 and 1996 (W15 D5 L5), scoring three goals. His record as a coach against them with Getafe CF and Sevilla FC was W2 D2 L2.

• Simeone helped Argentina beat Greece 4-0 in the latter's FIFA World Cup debut appearance in the United States in 1994. His only club appearance against Greek opposition also brought a 4-0 victory, for SS Lazio against Xanthi FC in the 2002/03 UEFA Cup first round.

• Roberto came through Atlético's youth ranks, playing four Liga games between 2005 and 2009. He returned to the club briefly in 2013 before joining Olympiacos.

• Other former team-mates are Roberto and Gabi (Real Zaragoza), David Fuster and Diego Godín (Villarreal CF), Alejandro Domínguez and Cristian Ansaldi (FC Rubin Kazan), Alejandro Domínguez and Miguel Angel Moyá (Valencia CF), Éric Abidal and Tiago (Olympique Lyonnais).

• Alberto Botía won none of ten matches against Atlético with Sporting de Gijón, Sevilla and CD Elche, losing eight.

• Fuster scored for Villarreal on his solitary Liga outing against Atlético in a 2-1 away win in December 2009.

• Guilherme Siqueira played for Benfica against Olympiacos in last term's group stage, a 1-1 draw in Lisbon.

Match facts

Olympiacos

• Jimmy Durmaz scored his first goal for Olympiacos in Saturday's 3-0 win at home to OFI Crete FC, a fixture that marked Kostas Mitroglou's first outing since returning to the club.

• Olympiacos won 16 out of 17 at home in the league last season – the exception a 3-0 defeat by Panathinaikos FC in March.

• Nine Olympiacos players made their Super League debuts in the season-opening 3-1 victory at home to Niki Volos on 23 August: Ibrahim Afellay, Abidal, Omar Elabdellaoui, Jorge Benítez, Botía, Arthur Masuaku, Pajtim Kasami, Mathieu Dossevi and Gevorg Ghazaryan.

• Afellay scored against Niki Volos, his first goal in 662 days since finding the net in FC Schalke 04's German Cup victory over SV Sandhausen on 30 October 2012.

• Kasami scored in the opening two rounds of the Greek Super League season. Only two Olympiacos players have managed that before: Rafik Djebbour (2012/13) and Ieroklis Stoltidis (2005/06).

• Olympiacos were held 1-1 at Panaitolikos GFS in their second outing, vacating the top of the table for the first time in 29 months – since 4 March 2012. The intervening 73 matchdays at the summit is a Greek top-flight record.

• Dimitris Diamantakos made his senior international debut as a second-half substitute in Greece's 1-0 home defeat by Romania in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 7 September.

• Giannis Maniatis has not featured since spraining his left ankle against Panaitolikos on 30 August.

• Dimitris Siovas, who has not featured since January, is close to a return to action following an ankle injury.

Atlético

• Atlético are five matches unbeaten in all competitions this term.

• Substitute Arda Turan scored the winner on first appearance of the season on Saturday as Atlético beat Real Madrid CF 2-1.

• Four of Atlético's last six competitive games have been against their city rivals, recording a draw and a win in the Spanish Super Cup - and, of course, losing in last season's UEFA Champions League final.

• The Rojiblancos started the season by defeating Real Madrid 2-1 on aggregate to win the Spanish Super Cup for the second time.

• Summer recruit Mario Mandžukić scored the decisive goal against Madrid and then opened his Liga account on 30 August in a 2-1 home victory against top-flight newcomers SD Eibar.

• Raúl García made his debut for Spain in the European champions' 1-0 friendly loss to France on 4 September.

• On the same day, Saúl Ñíguez scored the only goal in Spain's UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying success in Hungary.