Olympiacos out to keep Sheriff in shade

Olympiacos FC will be confident of claiming their place in the UEFA Champions League group stage when they host FC Sheriff with a 2-0 advantage from the first leg.

• Second-half goals from Dudu and Kostas Mitroglou have left the Greek titleholders strongly placed to progress against opponents seeking to create history by becoming Moldova's first group-stage representatives.

Match background

• Sheriff have it all to do to retrieve a two-goal deficit away to opponents who have won the last 12 European ties where they held a first-leg advantage.

• Not since the 1983/84 season and a European Champion Clubs' Cup second-round loss to SL Benfica have the Greek side surrendered a first-leg lead.

• Eager to return to the group stage after slipping up in last season's qualifiers, Olympiacos made no mistake when placed in an identical position against ŠK Slovan Bratislava in the third qualifying round – after winning 2-0 in Slovakia, they won by the same score on home soil.

• Sheriff's history in UEFA club competition does not augur well for Leonid Kuchuk's visitors. They have lost twice before in the first leg and on both occasions failed to recover in the decider.

• In the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round they lost 1-0 at home to AC Sparta Praha en route to a 3-0 aggregate defeat. Then, at the same stage six years earlier they went down 4-1 at home to Grazer AK and finished up 6-1 aggregate losers.

• Sheriff have already gone further than ever before in the UEFA Champions League by reaching the play-off round. Prior to this season, they had fallen at the second qualifying stage for eight years running.

• Kuchuk's men beat FC International Turku 2-0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round, Alexandru Suvorov scoring from the penalty spot in both legs. They then secured their passage to the play-off round by defeating SK Slavia Praha on away goals following a 1-1 aggregate draw. José Nadson scored the decisive equaliser in Prague three minutes into added time to send the Moldovan champions through.

Team ties

• As a player, Olympiacos coach Temuri Ketsbaia once scored a winning goal in Moldova for his national team. Ketsbaia fired the only effort of the match as Georgia won a FIFA World Cup qualifier there in September 1997. He figured in two other internationals against Moldova as well: a 2-0 home win in that same World Cup qualifying competition and a 3-2 away defeat in EURO '96™ qualifying in 1995.

• Olympiacos goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis twice featured for Greece against Moldova in UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying, appearing in the 1-0 success in Chisinau in September 2006 and the 2-1 victory in Heraklion in June 2007. His Olympiacos colleague Vassilis Torosidis appeared for Greece in the first fixture while Sheriff midfielder Andrei Corneencov was in Moldova's team for the second.