The two Greek representatives in the Europa League group stage, Olympiacos and PAOK, lost away from home to Real Betis and Chelsea respectively on Thursday.
Olympiacos’ hopes of reaching the last 32 of the Europa League remain delicately balanced after they were beaten 1-0 by Real Betis in Seville.
Sergio Canales scored the only goal of the game as Real Betis edged out Olympiacos in a highly-entertaining Group F clash in which Kostas Fortounis had a shot cleared off the line and visiting goalkeeper José Sá saved a first-half penalty.
The Reds still need to beat AC Milan by 2-0 or 4-1 in Piraeus in two weeks’ time to advance to the knock-out stages of the competition.
PAOK played almost the entire game at Stamford Bridge with a man’s deficit, and predictably suffered a 4-0 defeat to Chelsea.
The red card shown to Yevhen Khacheridi from the 7th minute of the match meant PAOK was reduced to defensive efforts only,
A first-half double from Oliver Giroud and further goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Alvaro Morata in the second half, secured another comfortable Group L victory for Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea, while the match represented a damage limitation exercise for 10-man PAOK.
PAOK will go through if on December 13 it beats BATE in Thessaloniki and Chelsea downs Vidi in Budapest.
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