Konstantinos Mavropanos, Mohammed Kudus, Pablo Fornals and Saïd Benrahma are all in West Ham United’s starting XI for Thursday’s UEFA Europa League Group A matchday three tie at Olympiacos.
The quartet are among seven changes from the team which started Sunday’s Premier League fixture at Aston Villa.
David Moyes has also included Thilo Kehrer, Angelo Ogbonna – who will captain the Irons in Greece – and Danny Ings, while Alphonse Areola, Emerson, James Ward-Prowse and Tomáš Souček are the four players who keep their places.
The Hammers are in the port city of Piraeus, south of the capital, Athens, on the Saronic Gulf. Record 47-times champions of Greece, Olympiacos are owned by local shipping magnate, politician and media mogul Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Nottingham Forest.
West Ham will start Areola in goal for the first time in Europe since the UEFA Europa Conference League final victory in Prague in June. The Frenchman replaces Łukasz Fabiański, who has started the opening two Group ties, but is absent from the squad due to illness.
Should he keep a clean sheet this evening, Areola will extend his Club record to 12 clean sheets in European competitions, and also move third in the all-time clean sheet list in all competitions, with 17. The Frenchman is playing his 51st career game in Europe.
German Kehrer will start at right-back, with Mavropanos and Ogbonna partnered in the middle and Emerson, who is suspended for this weekend’s home Premier League fixture with Everton, at left-back.
Ward-Prowse and Souček will be in central midfield, with Kudus on the right, Benrahma on the left and Fornals supporting striker Ings. Souček is the most experienced member of the starting XI when it comes to European appearances, with this being his 59th overall.
Fornals makes a Club record 28th appearance in European competition, and the 48th of his career.
Substitutes Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen will both have to wait if they are to add to their own European record hauls of nine goals each respectively.
Antonio and Bowen are two of eleven substitutes, alongside goalkeeper Joseph Anang, full-backs Aaron Cresswell and Ben Johnson, centre-backs Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma, midfielders Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá, winger Maxwel Cornet and striker Divin Mubama.
Olympiacos: Paschalakis, Rodinei, Porozo, Retsos, Ortega, Alexandropoulous, Camara, Hezze, Podence, El Kaabi, Fortounis ©
Subs: Tzolakis (GK), Papadoudis (GK), Scarpa, El-Arabi, Vrousai, Quini, Masouras, João Carvalho, Pep Biel, Jovetić, Solbakken
West Ham United: Areola, Kehrer, Mavropanos, Ogbonna ©, Emerson, Ward-Prowse, Souček, Kudus, Fornals, Benrahma, Ings
Subs: Anang (GK), Cresswell, Johnson, Aguerd, Zouma, Álvarez, Paquetá, Cornet, Bowen, Antonio, Mubama
Referee: Andris Treimanis (Latvia)
