Bordeaux a barrier to Olympiacos ambitions

FC Girondins de Bordeaux won all three home games in the group stage, conceding just a single goal, formidable statistics for Olympiacos FC to try and overcome as they seek to turn round a first-leg deficit in their UEFA Champions League first knockout round tie.

• The French champions earned a sixth successive victory in the competition with a 1-0 triumph in Piraeus on 23 February thanks to Michaël Ciani's header in first-half added time. It was the fourth successive UEFA Champions League match in which Bordeaux had kept a clean sheet.

Match background
• Bordeaux were the most successful side in the group stage with five wins and a draw. The only points dropped came in a 1-1 draw at Juventus on Matchday 1 while two goals conceded was also the best record of the 32 competing teams.

• The other goal to count against Laurent Blanc's team came in the home game with FC Bayern München which finished 2-1 in their favour. The French champions won their other two home games, against Maccabi Haifa FC (1-0) and Juventus (2-0) respectively.

• This is the first time the Ligue 1 club have played host to Greek opponents in UEFA club competition. Prior to the first leg, Bordeaux's only previous meeting with a Greek side was a 3-2 victory at Panionios GSS in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage.

• Olympiacos have lost their last two away meetings with French opponents, going down 2-1 against both AS Saint-Etienne in last season's UEFA Cup round of 32 and Olympique Lyonnais in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Overall they have lost seven of their ten competitive fixtures in France and six of the last seven.

• Two years ago Olympiacos went out in the last 16 with a 3-0 defeat at Chelsea FC following a goalless home leg.

• The Greek champions reached the knockout phase for the second time in three seasons by finishing second in Group H, three points behind Arsenal FC and five ahead of R. Standard de Liège. They failed to score in their three away games, losing 2-0 at both Arsenal and Standard before a goalless draw at AZ Alkmaar.

• Olympiacos have not won away from home in the UEFA Champions League proper since a 2-1 group-stage triumph at S.S. Lazio on 28 November 2007. That was their second away success in three games, having had to wait 31 matches for their first, but of their four matches since that Lazio victory, three ended in defeat with one draw.

• After their UEFA Cup campaign ended on French soil at St-Etienne last season – when they also lost the first leg at home – history is against Olympiacos progressing. Of ten ties in UEFA competition where the Greek champions have lost the first leg at home, only once have they recovered the deficit: against FC Chornomorets Odesa in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, a 1-0 reverse in Athens being followed by a 3-0 triumph in Ukraine.

• Furthermore, Olympiacos have lost the first leg home or away on 29 occasions and progressed on aggregate just three times. Only once in UEFA Champions League history has a team beaten at home in the first leg come through, AFC Ajax losing 1-0 against Panathinaikos FC in the 1995/96 semi-finals first leg but winning 3-0 in Athens.

• Bordeaux, meanwhile, have never lost in UEFA competition after winning the first leg away from home, coming through all 12 ties in which they have taken a lead back to France, most recently against Tampere United in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round (3-2 away, 1-1 home). Indeed, of 32 ties in which Les Marine et Blanc have won the first leg home or away, they have progressed on all but six occasions.

Team ties
• Central defender Michalis Kapsis, a UEFA EURO 2004 winner with Greece, played for both clubs. He left AEK Athens FC to join Bordeaux immediately after his country's triumph in Portugal, playing 29 matches in Ligue 1 before moving to Olympiacos 12 months later.

• At Manchester United FC, Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc scored the opener in a 3-2 win at Olympiacos on 23 October 2002, his last goal in European competition. He also played in United's earlier 4-0 home victory as well as in the two games the previous season after the teams were again drawn in the same group, United winning 2-0 away and 3-0 at home.

• Blanc came up against Olof Mellberg three times while at United, the Frenchman recording two wins and a draw against the Swede's Aston Villa FC.

• Antonis Nikopolidis was in goal for Greece on 15 November 2006 when they went down 1-0 to France in a friendly in Paris. Alou Diarra came on in the second half for the hosts.

• Yoann Gourcuff and Dudu were together at Stade Rennais FC in 2004/05.

• Mellberg played for Sweden in a 3-2 home friendly defeat by France on 20 August 2008. Gourcuff and Diarra were on the opposing side.

• Michal Żewłakow was in the Poland team who lost 1-0 to a France side including Blanc in a Paris friendly on 23 February 2000. Blanc was substituted at the break.

• While with Manchester United, David Bellion faced Panathinaikos in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage, winning 5-0 at home and 1-0 away. Nikopolidis was on the other side. Bellion's first league goal came in Sunderland AFC's 1-0 win against a Villa team featuring Mellberg on 28 September 2002.

• Didier Domi spent eight seasons with Paris Saint-Germain FC from 1995 to 2003 and faced Bordeaux on eight occasions, winning once. However, he was in the team that beat Bordeaux on penalties in the 1997/98 French League Cup final.

• Jaouad Zairi faced Bordeaux on five occasions while at FC Sochaux-Montbéliard (2001 to 2006) and FC Nantes (2006/07), winning three times and losing twice.