Arsenal v Olympiacos live: Latest score and updates as Martin Odegaard returns in six changes for Champions League match – UK Times

Olympiacos are the underdogs for tonight’s game but they have recent history against English teams having beaten Aston Villa over two legs in the Europa League semi-final in May last year.

Arsenal pose a different challenge however. The Greek side kick off proceedings.

The players make their way out onto the pitch at the Emirates Stadium.

Martin Odegaard has the armband yet again and will be looking to get back to his best during this European outing.

Arsenal will want to take control early on in the game and take things from there.

Mikel Arteta was full of praise for Olympiacos manager Jose Luis Mendilibar.

“They have a really, really good manager, whom I’ve known since I was 13 because he was my coach at that period,” Arteta revealed.

“I know how he works, I know how efficient he is in what he does.”

In his pre-match conference, Mikel Arteta explained that his players “have the same ambition” this season in the Champions League.

“To go game by game and try to be better than the opponent, which is very difficult in this competition. We want to win as many games as we can. Tomorrow is going to be a really difficult one. We know how important the home form is going to be to reach the phase we want to.”

“What I want with this football club is to win major trophies. Nobody else has to put that line to us. That’s the ambition. Excuses have never been a part of my life,” he added.

Arsenal have won each of their last five games in the group/league phase of the UEFA Champions League, their longest such run since winning six in a row between December 2004 and November 2005.

Olympiacos have only scored one goal in their last six UEFA Champions League matches (D1 L5), despite attempting 51 shots across those outings and hitting the target 11 times.

Among teams who have been involved in the last two editions of the Champions League, Arsenal have conceded fewer goals per game than any other team in the competition (0.72, with 18 goal conceded across 25 games).

Today’s match will be the 13th time Arsenal and Olympiakos have faced each other in European competition. None of the previous 12 matches have ended in a draw, with both sides winning six games apiece.

Most recently, the Gunners beat the Greek champions over two legs in the Europa League in March 2021, winning 3-1 away but losing 1-0 at home.

Arsenal have faced Olympiakos on four occasions during Mikel Arteta’s reign as manager (W2 L2); only facing PSV (6) more often in European competition. The Greeks eliminated them from the UEFA Europa League in 2019/20 (last 32), before the Gunners eliminated Olympiakos from the same competition the following season (last 16).

Olympiakos have won two of their last three away games against English sides (L1); one of those being against Arsenal at the Emirates (1-0 in March 2021), along with a 4-2 win at Aston Villa in May 2024. This is as many victories as the Greek side managed in their first 17 away games versus English opponents in major European competition (W2 L15).

Martin Odegaard returns to lead the Gunners as Mikel Arteta makes six changes to the Arsenal team from their previous Champions League outing.

In the back line, Cristian Mosquera, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are replaced with Ben White, William Saliba and Myles Lewis-Skelly.

Odegaard joins Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi in midfield while Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard partner Viktor Gyokeres in the forward line.

Olympiacos XI: Tzolakis; Costinha, Retsos, Pirola, Ortega; Dani Garcia, Hezze; Gelson Martins, Chiquinho, Podence; El Kaabi

Subs: Paschalakis, Kouraklis, Biancone, Kalogeropoulos, Diogo Nascimento, Scipioni, Strefezza, Onyemaechi, Pnevmonidis, Mouzakitis, Taremi