OFI Crete vs. AEK Athens Match Report (1-1)

In our first match under newly-apointed manager Dusan Bajevic (who has served as AEK manager twice before, once for a long trophy-laden run in the 90s and once for just two months in 2004), we struggled for a draw away against OFI Crete today.

We lined up like this:

Djebbour—-Blanco

Scocco—————Pilatsikas
Kafes—–Basinas

Juanfran————–Nsaliwa
Kyrgiakos—–Majstorovic

Saja

In the 75th minutes Manduca subbed for Nsaliwa and a bit later, Edinho replaced Pilatsikas.

Often a team gets a bit of a lift when a new manager is appointed. Sometimes this lift dissipates after a few weeks and sometimes it caries them right through the season. Unfortunatley, we showed little lift out there today, playing much the same lackluster football that has plagued us all season. The one bright spot came from a player getting a fresh start under the new manager: Nsaliwa. He tackled well, interrupted play, fought off challenges and distributed well. This contrasted with the inconsisted play of two of our other defenders, Juanfran and Majstorovic, each of whom played well overall but each of whom also committed some needless errors. For instance, in the 56th minute, Juanfran was dispossed with noone behind him; fortunately, Majstorivic made a run over and covered for him with a precise sliding tackle. For his part, Majstorovic was leaving guys unmarked on set pieces (suh as the 14th minute scare where we left a man totally unmarked at the back post where, thankfully, a bit of luck interceded and he hit the site netting) and needlessly handled the ball just a few feet outside our box in the 81st minute.

We conceded first, in the 75th minute. Mere seconds after we subbed Manduca in for Nsaliwa and transitioned our defense to a back three from a back four, OFI crossed a ball to Juanfran’s side, the OFI attacker beat Juanfran with one touch and slotted a pass backwards for a teammate to have a clear shot. Today, Juanfran looked like the wek link in our defense.

We equalized six minutes later, when Scocco and Kafes combinedfor a perfectly executed equalizer. Other chances followed, but Blanco and Edinho seemed to lack that final touch.

So, we take a point from an away trip. It certainly beats dropping all points at home to recently promoted teams, but it is still a long way from where we need to be. For now, we’ll just hold our breath and see if Mr. Bajevic can recreate some of the majic he brought to the club in the 90s.