Away form boosts Olympiacos for Dinamo return

A second successive away win, secured by Ideye Brown's late goal at GNK Dinamo Zagreb, has put Olympiacos FC firmly in the frame for one of the qualifying places in Group F.

• The Greek champions are level with FC Bayern München on six points, three more than Arsenal FC and Dinamo.

Previous meetings
• The sides had met on four occasions before this season – Dinamo are the only Croatian team Olympiacos have faced. The only one of those encounters not to have been won by the home team was the last of the four, a 1-1 draw in Zagreb in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• It confirmed Olympiacos' first – and only – qualification for the European Cup's quarter-finals while Dinamo finished three points behind them in second place.

• Earlier in the group, Alexios Alexandris and Siniša Gogić scored as Dušan Bajević's Olympiacos won 2-0 against Zlatko Kranjčar's visitors.

• The lineups in Athens on 30 September 1998 were:
Olympiacos: Eleftheropoulos, Karataidis, Amanatidis (Antzas 75), Poursanidis, Giannakopoulos, Gogić, P Djordjević, Mavrogenidis, Karapialis (Niniadis 74) Alexandris (Luciano 90), Anatolakis.
Dinamo: Ladić, Tokić, Marić, Jurić, Mujčin (Šabić 46), Rukavina, D Šimić, Cvitanović, Jeličić (Šokota 72) Jurčić, Viduka (J Šimić 81).

• In the 1977/78 UEFA Cup first round, Dinamo won 5-1 at home and lost 3-1 away.

Match background

Olympiacos
• The Greek side, in the group stage for the 17th time, lost 3-0 at home to Bayern on matchday one but two weeks later recorded a 3-2 win at Arsenal – their first victory in England at the 13th attempt and their first away win in European competition after six straight defeats.

• Last season Olympiacos finished third in Group A, completing a clean sweep of home wins in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time since 2009/10. Having transferred 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 against 2013/14 finalists Club Atlético de Madrid in Piraeus and also beat Juventus and Malmö FF at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis.

Dinamo
• The Zagreb club, back in the UEFA Champions League group phase after an absence of two seasons, began with a 2-1 home victory over Arsenal.

• Their victory over Arsenal was their first in 16 UEFA Champions League group stage fixtures (L13 D2) since a 3-0 win at home to SK Sturm Graz on matchday three in 1999/2000.

• On matchday two Dinamo lost 5-0 in Munich.

• Dinamo have played nine games against Greek sides with their record reading W2 D1 L6 (W2 D1 L2 in Zagreb).

• The Croatian champions have never qualified from the group stage in their four previous attempts – 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2011/12 and 2012/13.

• In fact, in all ten previous UEFA club competition group stages – six in the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup – Dinamo have yet to make it through to the next phase.

• In 2012/13 they lost all three away matches without scoring a goal.

• Zoran Mamić's men were unbeaten in their six qualifying games this season, recording two wins and a draw away from home.

Coach and player links
• Paulo Machado spent two seasons (2012–14) at Olympiacos, winning two Greek Super League titles and one Greek Cup. He was a team-mate of Giannis Maniatis, Dimitris Siovas, Alejandro Domínguez, Leandro Salino and Roberto.

• Gordon Schildenfeld was on loan at PAOK FC (January–June 2013) and at Panathinaikos FC (2013–15).

• Marco Silva was in charge of Estoril Praia from 2012 to 2014 and Gonçalo's coach during that time.

• Have played together:
Alfred Finnbogason and Jérémy Taravel (KSC Lokeren OV, 2011)
Sebá and Gonçalo Santos (Estoril Praia, 2013–14)
Felipe Pardo and Eduardo (SC Braga, 2013–14)
Hernâni and Hilal El Arbi Soudani (Vitoria SC, 2012/13).

• International team-mates:
Qazim Laçi and Endri Çekiçi (Albania Under-21s).

Match facts

Olympiacos
• Esteban Cambiasso and Omar Elabdellaoui are a booking away from a ban.

• Olympiacos are the only team in the Greek Super League with a 100% record. Their streak of nine victories is the club's best start to a season since 1979.

• Centre-back Alberto Botía has scored a career best four league goals this term. He registered twice in the 2-1 success at Atromitos FC on 25 October.

• Making his first start for Olympiacos, Hernâni equalised twice as a much-changed team drew 2-2 at home with Platanias FC in their first match of the Greek Cup group stage on 28 October.

• Domínguez injured his right hamstring against Platanias.

• Andreas Bouchalakis (26 August, left quadriceps), Maniatis (11 March, right knee) and Cambiasso (18 October, calf) are still out.

Dinamo
• Dinamo have lost four of their last seven fixtures, having gone into matchday two 45 games unbeaten in all competitions.

• Mamić's side followed up their home defeat by Olympiacos with a 2-1 reverse at HNK Rijeka on 25 October – their first setback in the league since going down 2-1 at NK Istra 1961 on 10 May 2014. They lost again on Friday, away to RNK Split.

• In between, the capital club recovered from a goal down to beat third-tier NK Mladost 3-1 in the last 16 of the Croatian Cup on 27 October.

• Ivo Pinto (hamstring) has not played since going off 37 minutes into the 4-1 derby win against NK Zagreb on 16 October.