“The Greek club won an important victory and broke into the playoff zone of the main round.”, — write: football.ua
The Greek club won an important victory and broke into the playoff zone of the main round.
Olympiakos – Bayer Leverkusen, Getty Images January 21, 2026, 12:11 AM
The home team opened the scoring in the 2nd minute of the match. After a corner kick by Rodiney, Kostinha won the fight in the air and headed the ball into the net of the Blasvich goal. It was the defender’s first goal in two years.
Bayer tried to fight back quickly and created several dangerous chances, but Olympiakos goalkeeper Constantinos Tsolakis showed a brilliant performance, saving the team several times after strikes from Bade, Vazquez and Grimaldo.
The key moment came at the end of the first half: after an interception by Retsos, Rodinei organized a counterattack, and Mehdi Taremi doubled the advantage of the Greek club to 2:0 with a powerful shot.
In the second half, Bayer had the ball and tried to regain the intrigue, but the defense of Olympiakos acted reliably and selflessly. Retsos stopped the visitors’ attacks several times, and Tsolakis saved the team again after Schick’s face-to-face exit in the final ten minutes.
In the end, Olympiakos kept the winning score and broke Bayer’s unbeaten streak in matches against clubs not from the top 5 European leagues. The Greek side climbed to 22nd in the standings and are just one point behind Bayer Leverkusen, keeping a realistic chance of making the playoffs ahead of the final round.
Goals: Koštinha, 2, Taremi, 45+1
Olympiakos: Tsolakis — Kostinha, Retsos, Pirola (Biancon, 74), Ortega — Mouzakitis (Garcia, 75), Esse — Rodinei, Chiquinho (Scipioni, 82), Martins (Onyemayechi, 79) — Taremi (El-Kaabi, 75)
Bayer Leverkusen: Blasvich – Kwansa, Andrih, Bade – Vasquez (Tillman, 58), Fernandez, Garcia, Grimaldo – Maza (Arthur, 70), Kofane (Shik, 70), Poku (Calbreth, 81)
Warning: Retsos, Taremi – Kofane