Atletico eyes last 16 berth against Olympiakos

Greek champion Olympiakos faces a tough task if it is to prevent last season's beaten finalist Atletico Madrid sealing its passage into the last 16 of the Champions League at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday.

Olympiakos hasn't played a competitive game since thrashing Panthrakikos 5-1 on November 9 as the Greek league was suspended last weekend following a violent attack on a senior official of the country's referee board.

Michel's men have a realistic chance of reaching the last 16 for a second consecutive year as they are tied with Juventus on six points in second place in Group A, three behind Atletico with two games to play.

Olympiakos shocked Diego Simeone's men with a 3-2 win at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in September, but the Spanish champions have reeled off three straight victories without even conceding a goal since to put themselves in pole position to progress.

The root of that revival was back-to-back victories over Juventus and Malmo in Madrid before they rode their luck in winning 2-0 in Sweden last time out.

Indeed, Atletico has won seven and drawn one of its eight home Champions League games since returning to the competition for the first time in four years last season and stretched its unbeaten home run in the league to 26 games with a 3-1 win over Malaga on Saturday.

"We know that we had three games at home coming up and now we have won the first one against Malaga, which is important because it was a difficult game,» defender Diego Godin said on Monday.

"We are going well in the league, we are where we want to be and now we have a final on Wednesday in our stadium and with our fans behind us.

"It is important to take advantage of our strength at home, but just because we are playing at...