A stunning second half saw Olympiacos grab a 3-1 win over AC Milan at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis and second place in Europa League Group F.
Going into the match, the Greek side knew that to leapfrog Milan they had to beat them 2-0, 3-1 or by a margin of three goals or more.
And they did get their two goals in a nine minute period in the second half through Pape Abou Cisse, and a Cristian Zapata own goal. But the Milan defender put one in at the other end, only for a Kostas Fortounis penalty to send Olympiacos into the Round of 32.
In the opening period Milan had plenty of chances to kill off Olympiacos’ qualification hopes, but were unable to apply the finishing touch.
Patrick Cutrone robbed the Greek defence and went in on goal but his shot was tame and easily gathered by Jose Sa. Cristian Zapata also had a header tipped over the bar by the goalkeeper.
It was mostly plain sailing for the Rossoneri in the opening 45 minutes until just before the break, as a Fortounis freekick forced a brilliant reaction stop from Pepe Reina.
The second half brought about renewed vigour to Olympiacos and Giannis Fetfatzidis tried a number of long range efforts which rarely troubled Reina. Keeping up the pressure on Milan, the Greeks did get their reward on the hour.
A quickly taken corner caught the Rossoneri defence out, and Jagos Vukovic’s initial header was blocked on the line by Gonzalo Higuain, but Abou Cisse got onto the rebound and he headed into the empty net.
Milan could have killed the tie when Cutrone and Gonzalo Higuain both had efforts go just wide, but at the other end Reina was the hero. A brilliant move put Fortounis one-on-one with the Rossoneri goalkeeper who got down to make the save, however the ball fell to Guerrero and he has his strike blocked by Zapata.
Just nine minutes after getting their first, Olympiacos had their second. Guilherme tried a speculative effort from 35 yards, and it took a wicked deflection off the foot of Zapata and looped over Reina into the net, sending the home fans wild.
Moments later Zapata made amends for that bad luck, and knocked the ball into the net from a corner, with his thigh.
Guerrero was denied by a combination of Reina and Ignazio Abate, before the latter gave away a penalty for holding Vassilis Torosidis. Fortounis then stepped up and sent Reina the wrong way to give Olympiacos the lead they needed for qualification.
