Sporting toys with hapless Olympiakos in Lisbon
Olympiakos has definitively crashed out of Europe, with one game remaining in its group stage of the Champions League, after going down 3-1 at Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday for its fourth loss in five games.
The Reds have only one point, in one of their worst performances in a Champions League group stage ever, although they arguably entered one of the toughest groups.
In Lisbon Olympiakos was more measured in defense than in the first game against Sporting in Piraeus (that ended 3-2 in the visitors’ favor), but the prolific Portuguese created several chances before scoring in the first half, and then toyed with the demoralized Greek champion.
The biggest chance missed was just two minutes and 10 seconds into the game, when Olympiakos keeper Silvio Proto pushed off the upright a shot by Andre Pinto.
Sporting eventually opened the score on the 40th minute when Gelson Martins crossed the ball from the right to the path of Bas Dost who beat Olympiakos central defender Alberto Botia to the ball and slotted it past Proto.
Three minutes later Bruno Cesar capitalized on a poor clearance by Leonardo Koutris, dodged his tackling and shot the ball home for 2-0.
Dost added his second goal on the night and third for Sporting on the 66th heading in a corner kick from the right, as Botia was once again outplayed by the towering Dutchman.
As in the other games when Olympiakos found itself 3-0 down (at home to Sporting and away at Barcelona), it scored a goal, courtesy of Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe on the 86th minute.
In its last group game Olympiakos will host Juventus on December 5, hoping to offer some consolation to its fans.
