Malmö FF is expected to secure the Allsvenskan championship title any day now. If so, Sweden's "most champion" team will reach a total of 24 Swedish Championship gold medals.
In comparison with Thursday's Europa League opponent, the Scanian giant club is lagging behind.
Has 47 league titles
Olympiakos has won 47 league titles. By far the most of all clubs in Greece and 27 more than their closest competitor Panathinaikos. Even though the club from the port city of Piraeus has not won a league title in two consecutive seasons, they won the Conference League final against Fiorentina this spring.
Olympiakos is a very disciplined team. Aggressive. A very Scandinavian way of playing – with individual skill, said MFF coach Henrik Rydström the day before the match at the stadium in Malmö.
After half an hour, the individual skill flashed. Malmö's Taha Ali lost the ball on his flank, halfway into the opponent's half, and then it went wrong. Gelson Martins drove the ball forward, released it short to Ayoub El Kaabi, and via a step-in finish, Olympiakos took the lead.
It could have been bigger. As early as the tenth minute, Gelson Martins hit the inside of Johan Dahlin's left post.
We knew it was a team with high intensity and they pressed very well, says striker Erik Botheim to Disney+.
Malmö lifted themselves in the second half. The home team showed greater confidence and occasionally put pressure on Kostas Tzolakis in Olympiakos' goal, but without creating any clear-cut scoring opportunities.
Missed penalty
With eight minutes left to play, Olympiakos got the chance to definitively close the match. Johan Dahlin brought down goal-scorer El Kaabi in the penalty area, but the Moroccan goal-king shot the penalty wide.
However, MFF did not get a free chance to score a point. Olympiakos performed ruggedly disciplined – the Scandinavian hallmark? – throughout the entire match, and El Kaabi became the Greeks' match hero.
We started well in the second half and got momentum, but then we're not sharp enough in the decisive situations in front of goal. It was too much "almost". We weren't sharp enough today, says Botheim.
MFF remains on three points in the Europa League group stage after one win and two losses. Next, they face Turkish Besiktas away on November 6.
Rangers (home) 0–2
Karabach (away) 2–1
Olympiakos (h) 0–1
6/11 Besiktas (a)
28/11 Ferencvaros (a)
12/12 Galatasaray (h)
23/1 Twente (h)
30/1 Slavia Prag (a)
