Olympiakos hammers its intention home

Thursday was a big night for Olympiakos that defeated visiting West Ham in Piraeus for the Europa League, while AEK and Panathinaikos went down to French opposition. PAOK snatched victory in Scotland for the Conference League.

Olympiakos scored its first win in the group, and the 2-1 result over West Ham at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium boosts the Reds' hopes for at least the third spot that leads to the knockout stages of the Conference League.

In its best performance to date this season, Olympiakos pinned West Ham down for the first 70 minutes and scored twice and found two goals in the first half, a spectacular effort by Kostas Fortounis and a Rodinei goal that went in off Angelo Ogbonna.

West Ham took advantage of the usual deflation of the Reds in the last quarter of the game, pulled a goal back via Paqueta, but could not find an equalizer. Olympiakos...