Betis v Olympiacos facts

Things are tight at the top of UEFA Europa League Group F, with three teams tussling for two qualifying spots, but it is Real Betis who hold the upper hand, leading both Olympiacos and AC Milan by a point. Victory will confirm the Spanish club's place in the round of 32, whereas Olympiacos will remain in contention whatever the outcome in Seville.

• Betis are unbeaten after four matches with two wins and two draws, their standout result a 2-1 triumph at Milan on matchday three. While three points against Olympiacos will guarantee their safe passage to the knockout phase, one will also suffice if Milan fail to win at home to point-less Dudelange.

• Olympiacos completed the double over Dudelange (2-0 away, 5-1 home) to maintain their qualification challenge, having lost 3-1 at Milan on matchday two. Neither they nor the Rossoneri can resolve their fate before the two clubs meet again in Greece on matchday six.

Previous meetings
• Betis had never faced Greek opposition prior to the 0-0 draw between the clubs in Piraeus on matchday one. Olympiacos have a wealth of experience against Spanish clubs, but they have yet to win in 15 visits to Spain, losing 13 of those matches including all of the last six, the most recent of which at Barcelona (1-3) in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Olympiacos's only previous UEFA Europa League engagement with a Spanish club, in the 2012/13 round of 32 against Levante, resulted in a 0-4 aggregate defeat (0-3 away, 0-1 home).

Form guide
Betis
• Betis finished one place and two points above Sevilla in last season's Liga to clinch an automatic UEFA Europa League group stage spot at their city rivals' expense.

• Prior to this season, Betis's last opponents in Europe were Sevilla, and it was a painful experience as they lost to the eventual winners on penalties in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League round of 16. That was the club's first European adventure in eight years, their six group games featuring just five goals in total but the three they scored proving sufficient to take them into the round of 32. There they overcame Rubin 3-1 on aggregate before the dramatic all-Seville clash in which both clubs won 2-0 at their opponents' stadium.

• Betis won only two of their six home games during that 2013/14 European run, and from the group stage onwards managed just two goals in Seville – though they did keep three clean sheets out of three in their group encounters, adding a fourth to that sequence this season before Milan ended it with the 1-1 draw on matchday four.

Olympiacos
• Last season Olympiacos surrendered the Greek Superleague title they had won in each of the previous seven campaigns, finishing third behind AEK Athens and PAOK and thus ending up in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, where they handsomely defeated Luzern (4-0 home, 3-1 away) before seeing off Burnley in the play-offs (3-1 home, 1-1 away).

• Although Olympiacos have been involved in the knockout phase of the UEFA Europa League on five occasions, this is only the second season in which they have participated in the group stage, their previous effort in 2016/17 having brought two wins, two draws and two defeats and qualification for the next round only on the head-to-head rule.

• The Piraeus club lost all three fixtures on the road in last season's UEFA Champions League proper and were on a run of five successive away defeats in European group stage football, losing each match by a two-goal margin, until they overcame Dudelange 2-0 in Luxembourg on matchday three.

Links and trivia 
• Olympiacos winger Matías Nahuel spent 18 months on loan at Betis from boyhood club Villarreal from 2016 to 2017, making 17 appearances, most of them from the bench.

• Miguel Guerrero is another Spaniard in the Olympiacos squad. During his career in Spain the striker faced Betis six times with Sporting Gijón, scoring once, and four times with Leganés.

• Daniel Podence of Olympiacos played alongside Betis's William Carvalho for several seasons at Sporting CP. Both left the club in 2018.

• Betis midfielder Giovani Lo Celso has found the net in each of Betis's last three UEFA Europa League matches.

The coaches
• A former midfielder capped three times by Spain, Santander-born Quique Setién spent most of his playing career with home-town club Real Racing Club, his two lengthy spells there interrupted by shorter stints at Atlético Madrid and Logroñés. His coaching career also began at Racing and eventually prospered in the Canary Islands with Las Palmas. He returned to the Spanish mainland to take charge of Betis in May 2017, leading the Seville club to sixth spot in the Liga at the end of his first season.

• Pedro Martins was named Olympiacos coach in April 2018, becoming the club's fifth Portuguese boss in six years after Leonardo Jardim, Vítor Pereira, Marco Silva and Paulo Bento. He had not previously worked outside his homeland, his last three spells in the dugout before the move to Greece having brought UEFA Europa League qualification for Marítimo, Rio Ave and Vitória Guimarães. A holding midfielder, he was capped once by Portugal during a three-year spell with Sporting CP from 1995–98.