Standard in need of Olympiacos boost

Bottom of Group H with one point from three matches, R. Standard de Liège are in urgent need of a first UEFA Champions League win of the season when they welcome Olympiacos FC to Belgium having gone down 2-1 in Piraeus on Matchday 3.

• In Standard's first home game in the group stage they raced into a 2-0 lead against Arsenal FC inside the first five minutes before subsiding to a 3-2 defeat. Olympiacos, meanwhile, went down 2-0 at Arsenal in their only other away fixture, although home wins against AZ Alkmaar and Standard have left Zico's team second in the standings, one point behind the English club.

Match background
• The game at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, when Kostas Mitroglu (43) and Ieroklis Stoltidis (90+3) responded to Igor De Camargo's 37th-minute opener to give Olympiacos victory, was the first official fixture between the teams. It was also only the second time that each has been involved in a competitive tie against a club from their rivals' country.

• Standard beat AEK Athens FC 4-1 in the 1977/78 UEFA Cup second round, their only previous home game against Greek opposition, to clinch a 6-3 aggregate triumph.

• Olympiacos have to go back 35 years for their only previous competitive visit to Belgium and it is not an occasion the club will recall with any satisfaction. They went down 5-1 at RSC Anderlecht in the European Champion Clubs' Cup second round and although they won the home leg 3-0, were still eliminated.

Team ties
• Olympiacos's Michał Żewłakow and Standard striker Dieudonné Mbokani have both had spells at Anderlecht, although not at the same time. Żewłakow left Anderlecht for Olympiacos in summer 2006 at about the same time that Mbokani signed on at the Constant Vanden Stock. He spent a year there before making the switch to Standard.

• Żewłakow made 96 league appearances over four seasons with Anderlecht, winning Eerste Klasse titles in 2004 and 2006. He also spent 1998/99 with KSK Beveren before a three-year stint at R. Excelsior Mouscron. During his time with Mouscron and Anderlecht the Polish defender faced Standard eleven times, winning four, drawing one and losing six.

• While with Anderlecht, Żewłakow was on the winning side against a K. Heusden-Zolder team including De Camargo in September 2003 and again the following January.

• In April 2006 Żewłakow's Anderlecht won 2-0 against a Standard side which included Mohamed Sarr.

• Olympiacos midfielder Enzo Maresca was in the Sevilla FC lineup beaten 1-0 at Standard in the UEFA Cup group stage on 6 November 2008.

• Olof Mellberg, meanwhile, was part of the Sweden team beaten 2-1 by tournament co-hosts Belgium in the UEFA EURO 2000™ group stage.

• Antonis Nikopolidis was the Greece goalkeeper for a 2-0 friendly loss against Belgium in Brussels in August 2005.

• Zico was in charge of Fenerbahçe SK who knocked out RSC Anderlecht 3-0 on aggregate in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

• Standard coach Laszlo Bölöni scored twice for Romania against Greece; the first in a 3-1 win in February 1983 in Larissa and then again in a 2-2 draw in Bucharest in October 1987.

• In his first match in charge as Romania's national coach in August 2000, Bölöni came up against Żewłakow in a 1-1 friendly draw against Poland in Bucharest.