(Football news) Though a loss would force it to be at least a three-horse fight to advance from Group A, the Hammers have the opportunity to move eight points ahead of their next opponents. This season, David Moyes has stated multiple times that West Ham’s main goal is to compete in the top six, with the Premier League being their main objective.

Nevertheless, after just one victory in their last five games in the top division of England, the Hammers must work extremely hard in Europe to at least establish themselves as a fixture in the competition.

West Ham finished Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Aston Villa in ninth place in the table, six points outside of the top four, after Moyes admitted his players had been overwhelmed.

Positively, West Ham has made a great start to their continental campaign, defeating Freiburg away from home in what was ostensibly their hardest matchup then coming back from behind to defeat Backa Topola.

Moyes will want to stop West Ham from giving up goals right after the interval on both occasions, but the Scot is aware that his team will still be in the running for a last-16 position if they can make another maximum return on their travels.

Olympiacos’ lone loss in 2023–24 came at the hands of Freiburg, who defeated them 3-2 in the Karaiskakis Stadium. This was their only setback of the season.

With a game remaining in the Greece premier league, they are still ahead by two points, having accumulated 19 of a possible 21 points.

Due to a fireworks incident that injured an away player on Sunday, Olympiacos’ matchup with Panathinaikos had to be postponed. They will be keen to avoid any more crowd disturbances on Thursday.

Diego Martinez is aware that the stakes will be higher if his team fails to perform against West Ham, as demonstrated by the 2-2 draw that was posted at Backa Topola in a match that Olympiacos led 2-0.

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