Preview: Lions vs Olympic

Olympic FC
Image: Patrick Leigh Perspectives

Olympic FC head to Lions Stadium for a blockbuster clash against Lions FC on Saturday night in their penultimate clash of the 2020 NPL Queensland regular season (7pm KO).

Olympic, who are on a club record 13-game NPL Queensland unbeaten run are looking to complete a league double over Lions after running out 1-0 winners in the reverse fixture in August.

The two sides currently sit second and third respectively on the league table with Olympic sitting three points ahead of Lions as things stand.

Olympic’s Premiership push may be over by the time they kick off on Saturday night if Power are victorious on Friday evening against Capalaba.

Despite Olympic being mathematically able to catch the league leaders on points Power can claim the title with three points tonight by virtue of more wins during the 2020 NPL Queensland season.

This comes following a change to NPL Queensland competition regulations ahead of the 2020 season which weights number of wins over goal difference to split teams level on points.

Head Coach, Ben Cahn said his side were only focusing on what they could control ahead of Saturday’s match at Lions stadium.

“Olympic Lions is always a big game, whatever the scenario, but of course the dynamic changes depending on the Peninsula result tonight,” Cahn said.

“We won’t know what that is until after we’ve trained, so we can only focus on what we can control and that’s preparing for our game and for finals.

“There’s always a chance in this league, anyone can beat anyone. Capalaba is one of the toughest places to go in the league, the pitch is difficult to play on and when they get it right, they’re very difficult to play against.

“We were 0-0 there for a long time and the game changed when they went down to 10 men. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

“Our players have been exceptional so regardless of what happens, they’ll be determined to go Lions tomorrow, put in a top performance and get three points.”

Cahn added with just two games remaining of the 2020 NPL Queensland regular season, his side were looking to continue their strong run of form ahead of a third straight finals campaign.

“There’s too many possible scenarios still to worry about where we’ll finish and who we’ll play so we just need to focus on giving it everything in the last two games and see where we end up.

“We’ll be confident who ever we get in the semi,” Cahn concluded.

MATCH DETAILS
NPL Queensland 2020 – Round 13: Lions FC v Olympic FC
Lions Stadium, Richlands
Saturday, 7 November (7pm KO)