2023/2024 EL Group A: West Ham - Olympiacos - Freiburg - Backa Topola

[Dragonite]

[Jua Ferreira]

Prediction;

Freiburg
West Ham
Olympiakos
Backa Topola

[Firnen]

Prediction

1. Olympiacos
2. Freiburg
3. West Ham
4. Backa Topola

[bugylibicska]

1.West Ham
2.Freiburg
3.Olympiakos
4.Backa Topola

[bugylibicska]

Odds to win the group:

West Ham 1.80
Freiburg 3.75
Olympiakos 4.33
Backa Topola 15.00

[naaba]

Backa Topola seems like a serious candidate for 0/18.

[og2002gr]

1. West Ham 70%
2. Olympiacos 65%
3. Freiburg 64%
4. Backa Topola 1%

West Ham has accumulated massive experience after 2022 EL SF and 2023 ECL win. Even if they are not Pot1 material I expect them to win the group.
Olympiacos seems to have found their mojo taking big wins without even playing, so I expect them to beat Freiburg on the details (they were in a very easy group last season).

[Dragonite]

West Ham



--> 2nd participation in the EL group stages
--> Always advanced from the group stages
--> Manager: David Moyes (10-2-8)
--> Squad EL experience: 239 matches




Olympiacos



--> 5th participation in the EL group stages
--> Advanced from the group stages 3 times (75%)
--> Manager: Diego Martínez (5-2-5)
--> Squad EL experience: 222 matches




Freiburg



--> 3rd participation in the EL group stages
--> Advanced from the group stages 1 time (50%)
--> Manager: Christian Streich (5-5-4)
--> Squad EL experience: 138 matches




Backa Topola



--> EL (group stages) debutant
--> 1 of the previous 2 Serbian debutants advanced from the group stages (50%)
--> Manager: Zarko Lazetic (0-0-0)
--> Squad EL experience: 10 matches




Prediction:
1. West Ham
2. Olympiacos
3. Freiburg
4. Backa Topola

[Polak]

West Ham should top the group. Not sure what to make of FreIburg. Should be between them and Olympiakos for 2nd place. Olympiakos have disappointed enough times so I'll go for Freiburg. Backa not finishing bottom would be a big surprise.

1. West Ham
2. Freiburg
3. Olympiakos
4 Backa Topola

[Greyn]

Backa not finishing bottom would be a big surprise.

I don't think that calling this club this way is correct. It is Backa Topola, or at least Topola, but just Backa means nothing. It is an adjective coming from the name of a region in Northern Serbia.

Same like with Crvena zvezda. I believe it is allowed to say just "Zvezda", but never ever just "Crvena".

[Polak]

Ok didn't realise that.

[bugylibicska]

To win the group:

West Ham 1.67
Freiburg 2.37
Olympiacos 13.00
Backa Topola 51.00

[Dragonite]

Congratulations Freiburg!


Olympiacos lost twice against Freiburg last season.

This season they have a new manager and 17 new players, and they're once again playing against Freiburg.

However, although Olympiacos changed so much, the result didn't, they lost once again!

Their winless EL streak is now 10 matches.

Perhaps the defeat is extra painful for them because the other Greek teams won, so Olympiacos, that used to be Greece's finest team and perhaps even the finest team in Eastern Europe, is now a harmless team, Pedro Martins left and the strength that they had left with him.

[og2002gr]

Olympiacos lost twice against Freiburg last season.

They didn't lose twice.
Olympiacos took a useless draw in Freiburg

Perhaps the defeat is extra painful for them because the other Greek teams won, so Olympiacos, that used to be Greece's finest team and perhaps even the finest team in Eastern Europe, is now a harmless team, Pedro Martins left and the strength that they had left with him.

Pedro Martins left after a shameful 0-4 by Maccabi Haifa.
The season before (2021) he already got eliminated by Ludogorets.
Martins left because he stopped producing results. Not the opposite

[Dragonite]

Olympiacos lost twice against Freiburg last season.

They didn't lose twice.
Olympiacos took a useless draw in Freiburg

Perhaps the defeat is extra painful for them because the other Greek teams won, so Olympiacos, that used to be Greece's finest team and perhaps even the finest team in Eastern Europe, is now a harmless team, Pedro Martins left and the strength that they had left with him.

Pedro Martins left after a shameful 0-4 by Maccabi Haifa.
The season before (2021) he already got eliminated by Ludogorets.
Martins left because he stopped producing results. Not the opposite

The season before Pedro Martins arrival was 2017/2018 ==> Bottom of CL group without a single win, 0-1-5.

The season after Pedro Martins left was 2022/2023 ==> Bottom of EL group without a single win, 0-2-4.

The four seasons with Pedro Martins in charge, from 2018/2019 to 2021/2022:

2018/2019: Progressed from its EL group, eliminating Milan! (And also eliminated "English club" to reach the group stage)
2019/2020: 3rd place in CL group, eliminated Arsenal in EL last 32
2020/2021: 3rd place in CL group, eliminating Marseille, then eliminated PSV in EL last 32, then this time couldn't eliminate Arsenal in EL last 16
2021/2022: Progressed from its EL group, eliminating Fenerbahçe and Antwerp

The way I see it he's probably the best manager in Olympiacos history, responsible for numerous miracles. Eliminating teams like Milan, Arsenal, Marseille, PSV, Fenerbahçe is awesome.

And it's even more awesome when we see that in the adjacent seasons without him Olympiacos couldn't win a single game against anyone!


Let's see if they can finally win against Backa Topola next week.