Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest continue their preparations for the resumption of action with a friendly on Saturday evening.
The Greek and English sides are both owned by Evangelos Marinakis, and there is potential for a couple of Forest loanees featuring in the home side's starting lineup.
Match preview
While few people will be going as far as describing this game as the Marinakis derby, it is an occasion where he will be intrigued to see how these two clubs match up on the pitch.
Neither team have enjoyed the best of seasons, particularly Forest who have been in the Premier League relegation zone for the majority of the time since the start of August.
However, it is Olympiacos' poor campaign which has been highlighted more on the continent, the champions of the last three Greek top-flight editions currently 12 points off the pace.
Managerial changes have accompanied that drop off, the current incumbent being Michel who has recently returned for a second stint in charge after previously delivering two league titles at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.
As it stands, the Spaniard has posted five wins and four draws from his 12 matches in charge, but he was unable to prevent Olympiacos from finishing bottom in their Europa League group.
Since the start of the month, a 2-0 win has come against Huddersfield Town and a 3-3 draw with Standard Liege has been played out, both fixtures being friendlies.
In sharp contrast, Forest have gone down 2-1 and 3-2 in friendlies with Stoke City and Atromitos, leaving Steve Cooper demanding improvements in this contest.
Forest lost just once in six matches before the World Cup break, that reverse coming by a 5-0 scoreline at Arsenal, but Forest remain one point adrift of safety in the Premier League.
The English side are back in competitive action on December 21 when they face Blackburn Rovers in the EFL Cup, while Olympiacos are also in cup action when they meet Atromitos on December 15.
Team News
Having represented South Korea at the World Cup, Hwang In-beom and Hwang Ui-jo, a Forest loanee, are unlikely to be used by Michel for this game.
Pierre Kunde may feature on the back of Cameroon's group-stage exit from the same tournament, but Michel will be looking to select his strongest XI with less than a week remaining until competitive action.
Josh Bowler, another Forest loanee, could also be involved at some stage of proceedings.
Wayne Hennessey, Neco Williams, Brennan Johnson and Remo Freuler are not expected to feature after their time at the World Cup, while Cheikhou Kouyate is injured.
With the last game being played behind closed doors, predicting a specific team is difficult, but Cooper may want to start moving towards selecting his strongest XI available.
Olympiacos possible starting lineup:
Paschalakis; Pipa, Papastathopoulos, Ntoi, Reabciuk; M'Vila, Bouchalakis; Biel, Rodriguez, Masouras; Bakambu
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Henderson; Aurier, Worrall, Boly, Lodi; Yates, Mangala, O'Brien; Gibbs-White, Awoniyi, Lingard
We say: Olympiacos 1-2 Nottingham Forest
While this is a friendly fixture, there will also be a desire to earn bragging rights, of sorts. From Forest's perspective, they will want to be in prime condition ahead of their upcoming EFL Cup tie, leading us to predict a hard-fought triumph for the visitors.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
