On Wednesday, August 7, at 18:45 pm on “Bashakehehir Fatih Terim Stadium” in Istanbul will take place the first match of the match in the third preliminary round of the Champions League between Istanbul Bashakeshir and Olympiacos Piraeus.
If for the Turkish side this will be the debut of this season of the Champions League, for Olympiacos it will be the second “double” of this edition of CL after the one of the preliminary round with the Czechs from Plzen of which the Greeks have scored 4-0 overall, result established in the return from Greece after the score in the Czech Republic was 0-0.
The Turks are without victory in the last four verification matches they have sustained this summer, drawing 1-1 and 0-0 with Dusseldorf and AEK and giving the matches with Monchengladbach, score 5-1 and Ajax, score 2-1.
In contrast, Olympiacos is unbeaten in the last five matches. Apart from the double with Plzen that I mentioned, the Greeks have played in the last period and three friendly that they ended up losing. They drew 1-1 with Hamburger and Dinamo Kiev and prevailed 3-0 in front of Nottingham.
The winner of the double leg İstanbul Bashakehehir / Olympiacos will have a fiery match in the Champions League play-off, the last one before the group stage, to be followed by the double winner between – Krasnodar and FC Porto.
The stakes of the confrontation at “Başakşehir Fatih Terim Stadium” is a huge one, which is why we expect both teams to play closed and wait for the other’s mistake. More than sure that we will witness a balanced duel and regardless of the final result with which this first match will end, the qualification will be played in Greece in one week.
PREDICTION: Under 2,5 goals @ 1,60
