hire former Anderlecht manager Besnik Hasi to guide Olympiacos back to the UEFA Champions League group stage after a year's absence. Upon his arrival, Hasi strengthened the squad with players as Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Guillaume Gillet, Mehdi Carcela, Jagoš Vuković, Björn Engels, Uroš Đurđević, Emmanuel Emenike and Panagiotis Tachtsidis. Aggregate victories over Partizan (5–3) and Rijeka (3–1) in the two final qualifying rounds ensured the Red-Whites' presence in Group D of the competition, considered perhaps the toughest in Olympiacos' European history due to Barcelona, Juventus and Sporting CP being the opponents. A disheartening 2–3 defeat in the hands of Sporting at Thrylos' European season opener, combined with a 3–2 loss to AEK despite being 0–2 up, led to Hasi's dismissal from the club and his replacement by Takis Lemonis. The latter decided to focus on getting the squad back on track in domestic competitions, at a time when Olympiacos eventually got eliminated from Europe ahead of the Christmas break for the first time in 12 years. Following a home goalless draw against Barcelona and five defeats, the Red-Whites only managed to acquire one point during their entire Champions League group stage campaign, something considered a setback for the club after their 7 previous UEFA Champions League campaigns (2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16), in which they gathered at least 9 points in all of the groups (11 points in 2007–08, 10 points in 2009–10, 9 points in 2011–12, 9 points in 2012–13, 10 points in 2013–14, 9 points in 2014–15 and 9 points in 2015–16), with three qualifications to the knockout stage (Last 16) of the competition. Despite their one-point group stage exit, the worst European records by a Greek team in the history of European competitions both belong to AEK Athens: AEK's zero (0) point campaign in Group E of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League and AEK's zero (0) point campaign as well in the Group H of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, a lower-tier UEFA competition. Panathinaikos has also a one-point campaign in Group G of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League. Despite being in the Super League lead halfway through the season, Lemonis was dismissed on grounds of dressing room instability, and Óscar García was subsequently appointed with a vision of increasing attacking efficiency and discipline. Domestically, Olympiacos' Greek Cup run ended in the quarter-finals, marking their third consecutive year that they failed to lift the Cup. In the