One step away from the group stage

Olympiacos are performing at playoffs after they eliminated Victoria Plzen and Basaksehir quite easily, while they also managed to keep a clean sheet in all four games. Now Krasnodar are their last obstacle for the entrance in the Champions League group stage. In each of the previous games, their performance was improving and that gives hope to everyone in the Greek side that they are able reach their big goal. Tonight they will do the first step by searching for a win without conceding.

Krasnador's performance was impressive in the previous round of the Champions League qualifiers. They eliminated Porto but the fact that they qualified after they suffered a home 1-0 loss in the first leg, it was such an unpredictable outcome. In the second leg they scored three times in the first half and even when they conceded two goals in the second half, they kept the qualifying result that brought them to the Champions League playoffs. At the same time, they have registered 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in 6 games of their domestic league and they sit on the second place of the table, having 13 points, just one point below first-placed Zenit.

I expect a quite close game between two great teams. On the one hand, Olympiacos have the required experience and the advantage of the home, so they will try to make the qualification step against the not so strong defense of the Russian team. On the other hand, Krasnodar have quality midfielders and attackers and they proved that they can score with ease against any defense. BTTS is my call here.