Olympiacos off to Bremen

Piraeus giants Olympiacos CFP are still looking for their first goal on German soil as they travel to face Werder Bremen on UEFA Champions League Matchday 2.

• After a 2-1 defeat by Real Madrid CF on Matchday 1, Bremen will be looking to get off the mark in Group C while Olympiacos will want to build on their opening day 1-1 draw against S.S. Lazio. The Greek side will also want to rectify one of the most remarkable statistics in European competition: namely, their streak of 31 away matches without a win in the UEFA Champions League. Twenty-four of those matches have ended in defeat, with seven draws.

• The two sides have never met in European club competition.

• Bremen have only played two games against Greek opposition in the past, being drawn against Olympiacos' arch-rivals Panathinakos in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Panathinaikos won the home fixture but ominously for Olympiacos they lost 5-1 at the Weserstadion.

• Current Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf was in charge for both of those ties. A one-club man, he has been at the club since July 1972, making 262 league appearances for Bremen before hanging up his boots in 1994 and joining the coaching staff. He took over as coach in May 1999.

• Olympiacos have met German opposition six times in European competition, winning one - a memorable 6-2 mauling of Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2002/03 group stage - but losing the remaining five.

• Their previous three trips to Germany have ended in three defeats, and they are yet to score a goal on German soil.

• Reappointed as Olympiacos coach this summer having previously been in charge between 2000 and 2002, former midfielder Panagiotis Lemonis was involved in four of those games against German sides.

• A substitute in a 3-0 defeat at FC Bayern München in a 1980/81 European Champion Clubs' Cup tie, he started both legs of Olympiacos' 1982/83 tie against Hamburger SV in the same competition. They lost 1-0 in Germany and 4-0 in Greece.

• He was coach as his side won 6-2 against Leverkusen in September 2002 but had been dismissed by the time the return fixture was played in Germany. Current Olympiacos star Predrag Djordjević scored a hat-trick in that game.

• Bremen defender Naldo celebrates his 25th birthday on 9 October. Olympiacos' Argentinian striker Leonel Núñez turns 23 on 13 October.

• Bremen's Finnish central defender Petri Pasanen briefly played alongside Olympiacos striker Lomana LuaLua at English side Portsmouth in the second half of the 2003/04 season. Pasanen arrived on loan from AFC Ajax while LuaLua joined on loan from Newcastle United FC and went on to stay for another four seasons before joining Olympiacos in the summer.

• Two Olympiacos players can boast some experience of German football. Argentinian midfielder Cristián Raúl Ledesma played for Hamburg during the 2002/03 season while German-born teenager Konstantinos Mitroglou played for VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach's reserve team until this summer.

• Two of Serbian side FK Proleter's favourite sons will be on opposite sides in the game. Olympiacos striker Darko Kovačević spent two years with the Zrenjanin side - now FK Banat Zrenjanin - between 1992 and 1994 before joining FK Crvena Zvezda and then a number of clubs in western Europe. Bremen defender Duško Tošić was plucked from the youth ranks at the same club by OFK Beograd in 2002 before heading west with FC Sochaux-Montbéliard.

• A third-placed finish in Germany saw Bremen enter the third qualifying round where they beat NK Dinamo Zagreb to reach the group stage. Olympiacos qualified for the group stage as Greek champions.

• Olympiacos visit Real Madrid on Matchday 3 while on the same evening, 24 October, Bremen are at home against Lazio.