Blanc's Bordeaux banish Greeks

Gourcuff: Opened the scoring

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Bordeaux edged into the last eight of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday at the expense of Olympiakos, following a 2-1 win at Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Yoann Gourcuff's early strike, coupled with a late header from Marouane Chamakh, helped to see Laurent Blanc's side to a 3-1 aggregate success, with Kostas Mitroglou's reply not enough for the Greeks.

Both sides were reduced in number during a keenly-fought contest, with tempers threatening to boil over.

Bordeaux controlled the game early on, putting in a professional European display in the opening 45 minutes, but almost shot themselves in the foot during a twitchy second half.

It took the French outfit just five minutes to break the deadlock and double their advantage, with Vassilis Torossidis conceding a clumsy free-kick on the edge of the box.

From the angle on the left of the area, Gourcuff stepped up to curl a dipping effort high into the top corner over the flailing hands of Antonis Nikopolidis.

Olympiakos offered more of a threat as the half drew on, with Jaouad Zairi at the heart of their best work, but they struggled to carve open opportunities of note.

The lively Chamakh was hoping to build on his growing reputation with another impressive display for Bordeaux and he stung the hands of Nikopolidis with a low drive shortly after the half-hour mark.

Denied

The Greek keeper was then called into action again shortly after as he made a smart save at the feet of Gourcuff.

Zairi then poked wide for the visitors, after drifting into space 12 yards from goal, before Bordeaux came within inches of ending the game as a contest.

Five minutes before the interval, Gourcuff floated another long-range free-kick over the head of Nikopolidis, but was denied by a combination of crossbar and post.

Matt Derbyshire, the former England U21 international shining on Europe's biggest stage, then had the ball in the net for Olympiakos in stoppage-time, but saw his effort ruled out for offside.

Lomana LuaLua, a name instantly recognisable to Newcastle and Portsmouth supporters, blazed the first chance of the second period high into the stands as the visitors continued to toil.

At the opposite end, Gourcuff drilled inches past the post following a smart interchange with Chamakh on the end of the box.

Olympiakos' night then went from bad to worse in the space of six minutes as Derbyshire was given his marching orders.

On 54 minutes he was cautioned for tumbling too easily in the box and saw red on the hour after crunching into Jaroslav Plasil.

Dismissals

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Olympiakos were able to haul themselves back into the game on 65 minutes when Mitroglou, who had only been on the field a matter of seconds, sent a spinning volley crashing past Cedric Carrasso.

All of a sudden the game hung on a knife-edge, with the visitors knowing another goal would be enough to take them through on the away goals rule.

Their cause was helped considerably when Bordeaux skipper Alou Diarra inexplicably got himself sent off.

Similarly to Derbyshire, he picked up two cards in quick succession, taking only two minutes to put in a couple of needless tackles and be sent for an early bath.

With 13 minutes remaining Olympiakos thought they had turned the tie on its head, when Raul Bravo met a dangerous cross from Torossidis, but his effort was somehow deflected wide.

Gourcuff saw a penalty shout waved away as he threatened from another set-piece while a heavy touch from Chamakh, after he was sent sprinting clear, saw him denied the chance to wrap things up for the hosts.

Olympiakos threw everything they had at Blanc's men in the dying stages, leaving acres of space at the back, but could find no way through.

In the end Bordeaux booked their safe passage into the quarter-finals, after an uncharacteristically nervy showing, when Benoit Tremoulinas floated a cross to the back post with two minutes left on the clock and Chamakh was on hand to nod into an empty net.

A miserable night for Olympiakos, after all their hard work, was compounded after the final whistle when Olof Mellberg became the third player of the night to be shown a red card.