Background: Olympiacos face Bayern challenge

Olympiacos FC have recent history in facing German teams in the UEFA Champions League group stage but the visit of FC Bayern München represents a difficult start.

Previous meetings
• The teams met in the 1980/81 European Cup first round when the Bundesliga giants won both legs (4-2 away, 3-0 home). Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge scored in both games. 

Match background

Olympiacos
• The Greek side, who are in their 17th group stage participation and their fifth in succession, appointed Marco Silva, formerly of Sporting Clube de Portugal, as coach in the summer.

• Last season Olympiacos finished third in Group A. Transferring to the UEFA Europa League they were defeated in the round of 32, losing 2-0 away to FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk ahead of a 2-2 home draw.

• They began last season with a 3-2 win over 2013/14 finalists Club Atlético de Madrid in Piraeus and also beat Juventus and Malmö FF at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis.

• It meant Olympiacos completed a clean sweep of home wins in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time since 2009/10. The Greek title holders have won their last six home fixtures in the competition.

• It is the fifth time in 14 seasons that Olympiacos have been drawn in the same group as German opponents, winning three of those home games with one loss.

• A 6-2 win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen on matchday one in 2002/03 is Olympiacos' biggest UEFA Champions League victory.

Bayern
• The German title holders, who are in their 19th group stage campaign, reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the fourth time in a row last term.

• Josep Guardiola's charges won their first two away games en route to first place in Group E but then lost three and drew one of their other away games including the 3-0 defeat at FC Barcelona which paved the way for their semi-final defeat (agg: 3-5).

• Bayern are unbeaten in their seven games against sides from Greece (W5 D2).

• The five-time winners have emerged victorious in 11 successive matchday one contests and in only two of those have they conceded a goal.

Coach and player links
• Roberto saved Arturo Vidal's penalty in added time in last season's matchday three fixture with Juventus in Turin, who nevertheless won 3-2.

• Alberto Botía made his Primera División debut under Guardiola in Barcelona's 1-1 away draw against Deportivo La Coruña in 2008/09.

• Robert Lewandowski scored in Borussia Dortmund's 3-1 loss at Olympiacos in the 2011/12 group stage.

• Lewandowski scored in Poland's 1-1 draw with Giannis Maniatis' Greece in the opening match of UEFA EURO 2012 in Warsaw. Kostas Fortounis came off the bench for the last 22 minutes.

• In the same tournament, Philipp Lahm scored Germany's first in a 4-2 quarter-final win over Maniatis' Greece. Manuel Neuer, Holger Badstuber and Jérôme Boateng all started and Thomas Müller and Mario Götze came off the bench.

• In the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League Esteban Cambiasso's FC Internazionale Milano first beat Guardiola's Barcelona in the semi-final and then Bayern in the final.

• Cambiasso's missed penalty in the 2006 FIFA World Cup quarter-final shoot-out for Argentina against Lahm's Germany proved decisive after a 1-1 draw in Berlin.

• Fortounis (1. FC Kaiserslautern, 2011–14), Omar Elabdellaoui (TSV Eintracht Braunschweig, 2013–14) and Stefanos Kapino (1. FSV Mainz 05, 2014/15) have all played in Germany.

• Have played together:
Botía & Thiago Alcântara (FC Barcelona B, 2008–09)
Manuel da Costa & Medhi Benatia (Morocco)

Match facts

Olympiacos
• Luka Milivojević begins a two-game ban following his dismissal in the second leg of Olympiacos's 2014/15 UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie against Dnipro.

• The Piraeus club are 11 matches unbeaten in all competitions, a run dating back to early April.

• Maniatis is available for selection again, having not played since sustaining ligament damage to his right knee during a Greek Cup encounter with AEK Athens FC on 11 March.

• Andreas Bouchalakis picked up a left quadriceps injury in training on 26 August and is a doubt for matchday one.

• Alfred Finnbogason came off the bench for Iceland in their 1-0 away victory over the Netherlands on 3 September. He was an unused substitute three days later as the Nordic nation qualified for UEFA EURO 2016, their first major tournament, with a goalless home draw against Kazakhstan.

• Olympiacos have sold a club record 20,082 season tickets this term.

Bayern
• Bayern started the season by losing the German Super Cup for the third time in as many years, succumbing 5-4 on penalties to VfL Wolfsburg.

• Douglas Costa rounded off the scoring on his Bundesliga debut, the 5-0 defeat of Hamburger SV on 14 August.

• Eight days later Bayern conceded the joint fastest goal in Bundesliga history when Kevin Volland scored nine seconds into their 2-1 success at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

• Müller has registered nine goals in seven outings for club and country this term.

• All of the goals in Germany's 3-1 triumph over Poland in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 4 September were scored by Bayern players, with Götze (2), Müller and Lewandowski on target.

• Müller scored twice in the world champions' 3-2 win against Scotland three days later, when Lewandowski did likewise against Gibraltar. Lewandowski (ten goals) and Müller (eight) are the top two marksmen in qualifying for next summer's tournament in France.

• David Alaba opened the scoring from the spot as Austria prevailed 4-1 in Sweden on 8 September, a result that booked their place at UEFA EURO 2016.

• Joshua Kimmich opened his account for Germany Under-21s on the same day, converting a penalty in a 3-0 defeat of Azerbaijan in a qualifying fixture for the 2017 European finals.