Olympiacos stayed alive looking to finish 3rd in their group to get a second European chance through the barriers leading to the Conference League. The Reds scored their first point after three defeats in a row when Qarabag drew 0-0 in Baku on Matchday 4 of the Europa League, keeping hope alive.

This result may seem bad for Mitchell’s team, but it is not, and that is because Freiburg thrashed Nantes 4-0 away and thus the French were left with three points. So the scenario for the Greek champions is simple. They want the next game day to have the same or better result than Nantes, so that the difference remains at worst two points, and in the last round of the groups in Karaiskakis, in the match between them, win back their entry into the playoffs, because somehow the train of Europe was lost forever. Of course, in practice, things are clearly a bit more complicated, given that Olympiacos travels to Germany on October 27 for the match against Freiburg (who has one foot in 16), while Nantes hosts Qarabag.

Olympiacos presented itself in Baku yesterday clearly more refined and well-read than in their previous European meetings. Withstood the Azeri’s pressure in the first twenty minutes, and then leveling the game, had two good chances with the bar on Abubakar’s cross shot in the 38th minute, as well as a Kunde shot in the 44th minute, which Magomedaliyev had a difficult cleanup time.

KARABAK: Magomedaliev, Vesovich, Yafargulyev (Bayramov, 85), Mustafazade, B. Huseynov, Garaev (Yankovic, 68), Almeida Richard (Romao, 68), Kadi (Ozobich, 61), Shidoev, Zubir, Ovusu (Huseinov, 85) ) ).

Olympic Games: Paschalakis, Reabtsiuk, Papastathopoulos, Doi, Vrsaliko, Buchalakis (Innbom 85), Kunde (Embila 68), Biel (Valbuena 60), Brusai (Gary Rodriguez 85), Hui-Jo (Marcelo 60) , Abubakar.

• Group standings: Freiburg 12, Karabakh 7, Nantes 3, Olympiacos 1.