West Ham United vs Olympiacos Preview

West Ham will look to record just their second win in a month this Thursday when they welcome Greek side Olympiacos to London for the fourth round of the 2023/24 Europa League group stage.

The Hammers have endured a terrible few weeks, with four losses and one win in their last six games (D1). One of those losses came in the reverse fixture as they were beaten 2-1 by Olympiacos in Piraeus, ending a remarkable 17-game unbeaten streak in Europe (W16, D1), a record for an English side.

Despite that, they remain top of their group with six points alongside Freiburg. However, that result blew the group open, as their visitors are just two points behind, meaning that a loss here could send them to third place with just two group games to play.

David Moyes’ men will be keen to avoid that and will be hoping that their strong form at the London Stadium, where West Ham have been victorious in 11 of their last 14 continental contests (D1, L2), will help to get a win here, putting them one foot in the UEL knockout phase.

Meanwhile, Olympiacos travel to London in good mood after their win over West Ham in the reverse fixture ended an 11-match winless run for them in the UEL proper (D3, L8).

They’ll now search for consecutive group-stage wins in the competition for the first time since September 2021. Achieving that feat would upset not only the bookmakers but the history books too since the Greeks have only won three of their previous 19 trips to England (D1, L15).

But while they haven’t been on the winning side much on their recent continental travels as a whole, they have simultaneously proved extremely hard to beat by drawing seven of their last nine European away encounters (W1, L1).