# 2008–09 Olympiacos F.C. season

The 2008–09 season was Olympiacos's 50th consecutive season in the Super League Greece and their 83rd year in existence. The club are competing in the UEFA Cup after an 11-year participation in the UEFA Champions League, as they were eliminated in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round by Anorthosis. In the beginning of the summertime, Olympiacos unveiled Spanish Ernesto Valverde as their new coach.

## Players
### First-team squad

    Squad at end of season
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | GRE | Leonidas Panagopoulos |
| 2 | DF | GRE | Christos Patsatzoglou |
| 3 | DF | FRA | Didier Domi |
| 4 | DF | BRA | Leonardo |
| 5 | DF | GRE | Georgios Galitsios |
| 6 | MF | GRE | Ieroklis Stoltidis (vice-captain) |
| 7 | MF | ARG | Luciano Galletti |
| 8 | FW | ESP | Óscar |
| 9 | FW | SRB | Darko Kovačević |
| 10 | FW | BRA | Diogo |
| 11 | MF | SRB | Predrag Đorđević (captain) |
| 14 | DF | POL | Michał Żewłakow |
| 15 | DF | ESP | Raúl Bravo |
| 18 | DF | GRE | Paraskevas Antzas |
| 19 | MF | GRE | Konstantinos Mendrinos |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 20 | MF | BRA | Dudu Cearense |
| 21 | DF | GRE | Avraam Papadopoulos |
| 22 | FW | GRE | Kostas Mitroglou |
| 23 | MF | ARG | Sebastián Leto |
| 25 | MF | ARG | Fernando Belluschi |
| 30 | DF | GRE | Anastasios Pantos |
| 31 | MF | GRE | Aristides Soiledis Under 20s |
| 33 | MF | GRE | Giannis Papadopoulos |
| 35 | DF | GRE | Vasilis Torosidis |
| 36 | MF | GRE | Giorgos Niklitsiotis |
| 50 | GK | SVK | Pavel Kovać |
| 71 | GK | GRE | Antonis Nikopolidis (vice-captain) |
| 77 | MF | SVN | Mirnes Šišić |
| 92 | DF | GRE | Kyriakos Papadopoulos |

## Summer squad changes

| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 5 | DF | GRE | Georgios Galitsios loan return from AEL 1964 |
| 8 | FW | ESP | Óscar from Real Zaragoza |
| 10 | FW | BRA | Diogo from Portuguesa |
| 20 | MF | BRA | Dudu Cearense from CSKA Moscow |
| 21 | DF | GRE | Avraam Papadopoulos from Aris |
| 23 | MF | ARG | Sebastián Leto loan from Liverpool |
| 33 | MF | GRE | Giannis Papadopoulos from Iraklis |
| 50 | GK | SVK | Pavel Kovać from Apollon Kalamarias |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 74 | GK | CRO | Tomislav Butina Released and moved to Dinamo Zagreb |
| 87 | GK | GRE | Michalis Sifakis (Released) |
| 23 | FW | CYP | Michalis Konstantinou Released |
| 10 | FW | ARG | Leonel Núñez moved to Independiente |
| 32 | FW | COD | Lomana LuaLua moved to Al-Arabi |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 13 | MF | HUN | Zsolt Laczko to Leicester City |
| 77 | MF | BRA | Leozinho to OFI |
| 24 | MF | GRE | Georgios Katsikogiannis to Levadiakos |

### Current national players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 2 | DF | GRE | Christos Patsatzoglou 34 (1) |
| 14 | DF | POL | Michał Żewłakow 84 (3) |
| 21 | DF | GRE | Avraam Papadopoulos 4 (0) |
| 25 | MF | ARG | Fernando Belluschi 2 (0) |
| 28 | FW | ARG | Cristian Ledesma 3 (0) |
| 35 | DF | GRE | Vasilis Torosidis 20 (1) |
| 77 | MF | SVN | Mirnes Šišić 9 (2) |
| 7 | MF | ARG | Luciano Galletti 13 (3) |
* Appearances (goals)

## Competitions
### Overall

| Competition | Started round | Current position / round | Final position / round | First match | Last match |
| Super League Greece | — | 1st | | 30 Aug 2008 | 26 Apr 2009 |
| Champions League | Third qualifying round | — | Third qualifying round | 13 Aug 2008 | 30 Aug 2008 |
| UEFA Cup | First round | Round of 32 | | 16 Sep 2008 | |
| Greek Cup | Round 4 | Round 5 | | 29 Oct 2008 | |
Updated to match played 17 December 2008 Source: Competitions

### Super League Greece
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Olympiacos (C) | 30 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 50 | 14 | +36 | 71 | Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round |
| 2 | PAOK | 30 | 18 | 9 | 3 | 39 | 16 | +23 | 63 | Qualification for the Play-offs |
| 3 | Panathinaikos | 30 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 51 | 18 | +33 | 61 | Qualification for the Play-offs |
| 4 | AEK Athens | 30 | 14 | 13 | 3 | 40 | 24 | +16 | 55 | Qualification for the Play-offs |
| 5 | AEL | 30 | 12 | 13 | 5 | 36 | 26 | +10 | 49 | Qualification for the Play-offs |

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: April 26, 2009. Source: Super League Greece

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Ground | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A |
| Result | W | W | W | D | W | W | L | W | D | W | W | W | W | D | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | L | D | D | W | W | W | L | W |
| Position | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |

#### Matches

All times at EET

### UEFA Champions League

All times at CET

#### Third qualifying round
### UEFA Cup

All times at CET

#### Group stage

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | MET | GAL | OLY | HER | BEN |
| 1 | Metalist Kharkiv | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 10 | Advance to knockout stage | — | — | 1–0 | 0–0 | — |
| 2 | Galatasaray | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage | 0–1 | — | 1–0 | — | — |
| 3 | Olympiacos | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 3 | +6 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage | — | — | — | 4–0 | 5–1 |
| 4 | Hertha BSC | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 2 | | — | 0–1 | — | — | 1–1 |
| 5 | Benfica | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | −7 | 1 | | 0–1 | 0–2 | — | — | — |

#### Round of 32
## Team kit

| Home | Away | Third | Friendlies |

## Individual Awards

| Name | Pos. | Award |
| Luciano Galleti | Winger | Super League Greece Player of the Season Super League Greece Best Foreign Player Super League Greece Golden Boot |
| Antonios Nikopolidis | Goalkeeper | Super League Greece Goalkeeper of the Season |