Another draw in Larissa for AEK

The match against Larissa ended 0-0 yesterday.

A report can be found here.

As the article states the draw means little for us. Either way, we can still qualify for Champions League as long as we beat Panathinaikos this Sunday. However, we did not play as well as we should have one week before the biggest game of the playoffs.

It was not a horrible display by AEK, however it was not nearly as impressive a display as the past two matches. I think one significant reason for this was the absence of Kafes, who over this season has turned into a critical midfielder for us. Im not sure yet if he will be ready for this weekend, but hopefully he will because Nsaliwa will be out for the next game due to picking up too many yellow cards.

Larissa had some incredible opportunities to score, including a penalty. Luckily for us however we managed to hold onto that one valuable point which could grant us Champions League and extra money which we so desperately need.

With regards to some of the comments which have been posted about Sunday’s game I believe, but am not certain, that a win next week will be enough to grant us Champions League as the final standing, in case of two teams having the same amount of points, is determined by head-to-head record. This means that regardless the score, as long as we win, we will get first since we would have beaten Pao once in the playoffs (and once in the regular season) and drawn with them once in the playoffs (and once in the regular season).

I will have to clarify that though because I am not 100 percent certain.

AEK is angry with regards to the officiating at yesterday’s games due to some of the calls made such as the penalty (it is questionable as I have not seen a truly convincing video of it however there is a high chance that Koutromanos may have actually made contact with the Larissa player) and the goal we almost scored (again, I can’t say for sure what is true as I have not yet seen a camera view which confirms without doubt that the ball indeed did cross the line).

Here is the best video I can find at the moment of highlights of the game.

There isn’t much I can think of too say of the game. No one really stood out as either fantastic or worrisome, at least not that I can remember. Ill see if AEKMAN74  or AEK Baltimore have anything to add.

For some reason, I believe that we will win this weekend. Larissa just seems to be one of those teams we have trouble beating this year (only one win from four games, with the three other results being draws). We barely beat them earlier in the playoffs after a mediocre performance and then we went on to draw Pao away and to beat PAOK twice in a row with two good performances. Im sure, if we play the best we can, without silly mistakes, that we can beat Pao, and get a chance to qualify for Champions League next year.