OLYMPIACOS WOMEN KEEP ROLLING — ANOTHER BIG PRESEASON WIN | OneFootball

The scorelines do not count yet. The patterns developing behind them might.

Olympiacos Women continued their preparations for the 2026–27 season with another emphatic performance, defeating Atromitos 5–0 in Peristeri on Wednesday night. Nagia Veniamin scored twice. Katsanou, Xylouri and Larsson added one each. Tasos Fleggas was also able to involve 15 players as Olympiacos continued using preseason for both conditioning and evaluation.

It is another friendly. It is also another piece of evidence that a team preparing for a significant jump in competitive level is progressing quickly.

This preseason has a different purpose

Olympiacos Women are no longer constructing a team simply capable of overwhelming lower-division opposition. Promotion changed the question. The challenge now is whether the structure that carried Olympiacos through their formative season can translate to the demands of Greece's top tier.

It requires more than goals. Fleggas needs to establish a defensive unit capable of surviving longer periods without the ball. His midfield must learn when to accelerate and when to control possession. His forwards need combinations capable of breaking organized defensive lines rather than relying purely upon superior individual quality. Not because Olympiacos beat Atromitos by five, but every match provides another opportunity to build the habits they will need when five-goal victories are considerably harder to find.

The most obvious attacking story continues to be Veniamin, last season's top scorer by considerable margin. Two more goals against Atromitos add to a preseason in which she has continued to demonstrate an ability to arrive in scoring positions. That matters because promotion frequently changes a striker's environment. There is less space. Center-backs recover faster. Mistakes are punished.

Possessions that produced three opportunities at a lower level may produce only one. The forwards who adapt are generally those whose movement continues generating chances even when the overall volume declines.

Veniamin's preseason scoring cannot prove that transition has already occurred, but repeatedly finding the net is considerably preferable to entering the season searching for confidence.

The distribution of goals may matter even more

There is another encouraging element in the 5–0. Olympiacos did not depend exclusively upon one scorer. Benjamin supplied two. Katsanou scored. Xylouri scored. Larsson scored.

Teams become easier to defend when their scoring mechanism is predictable. If opponents can identify one central forward as the overwhelming threat, they can tilt their defensive structure toward stopping her.

Goals arriving from different positions create different problems. A defender follows one runner and potentially opens space for another. A midfielder steps out and creates a channel behind her. A wide player attracts a full-back and suddenly the central lane becomes accessible. Multiple scoring threats make defensive choices more expensive.

Olympiacos started Mougiou in goal, with Pelekouda, Mylona, Xylouri, Ioannidi, Logou, Larsson, Kolemba, Katsanou, Atako and Veniamin completing the XI. Trygouti, Matzana, Tzani and Panagiotopoulou subsequently entered.

Preseason should answer questions that become considerably more expensive once league points are available. Which combinations function? Who can change a match from the bench? Which players can cover multiple roles? What happens when the preferred XI isn't available?

A newly promoted team particularly needs those answers because the first season at a higher level inevitably creates situations it did not encounter during the promotion campaign.

The clean sheet belongs in the conversation too

Five goals dominate headlines. Zero can be equally useful. Olympiacos prevented Atromitos from scoring while rotating players and continuing their preseason workload. Top-flight football creates matches where the attacking rhythm disappears. A chance hits the post. A goalkeeper makes an exceptional save. An opponent sits deep. A game reaches the 70th minute at 0–0. Teams capable of keeping the other end quiet give themselves time to solve those problems.

The next stage is turning dominance into readiness

Olympiacos' women's football project has moved extraordinarily quickly. The first chapter was about establishing the department. The next was about winning promotion. Now comes the more difficult transition: proving that Olympiacos can become relevant at the highest domestic level rather than merely arrive there.

A 5–0 preseason victory cannot answer that question. It shouldn't be asked to, but Veniamin scoring twice, four different players finding the net, another clean sheet and Fleggas distributing minutes across his squad are all useful indicators.

The results do not count yet. Olympiacos are making sure that when they finally do, the team is ready.