Every week, Gracenote finds out all about the matches PSV plays. In the Europa League, a unique fixture is scheduled next Thursday. It will be the first time that PSV and Olympiakos will face each other in a European context.
Before the winter, PSV finished in first place in a group with Granada, PAOK and Omonia Nicosia. It is the first time since the 2015-2016 season that PSV has reached the knockout phase of a European tournament. Back then, it lost in the Champions League after penalty kicks to Atletico Madrid, the later losing finalist.
Unbeaten
Olympiacos still played in the Champions League in the first half of the season where it finished third in a pool with Manchester City, FC Porto and Olympique Marseille. Last season Olympiacos also made it to the knockout stage of the Europa League. At the time, it was eliminated by Wolverhampton Wanderers.
In the Greek league, Olympiacos is running very well. Last Sunday it lost for the first time, but it is currently 14 points clear of the number two.
Donyell Malen
This European season, Donyell Malen has already scored seven goals (five in the group stage and two in the preliminary rounds). This brings his total to 14 goals in the European context which puts him in a partial fourth place in PSV's European all-time top scorers list. If he manages to score on Thursday he will move into a partial third spot with none other than Romário. Remarkably, Malen scored 10 of his 14 goals away from home.
Ibrahim Afellay, Dennis Rommedahl, Konstantinos Mitroglou, Jagos Vukovic and Manuel da Costa have all played for both PSV and Olympiacos. Included in that list since this season is the rental Bruma, who still played for PSV in the preliminaries.