AEK 2-0 Lamia

The improvement in fortunes under Kostenglou has continued with another 3 points following today’s win over Lamia, a win which brings us up to 5th place with 6 points (Olympiakos, PAOK, and Xanthi are all 3 for 3 so far).

Truth be told, it wasn’t a phenomenal game by any means, but it sounds like we did enough to control the match and make a couple of our chances count. From what I could make out on the radio, it seemed like though we managed to control the game for the most part, it was making any meaningful gain’s into Lamia’s box which we struggled with. Livaja stepped up when needed though, as he did last week, and was involved with both of our goals scored today (the first was a pass from Livaja which resulted in an own goal while the second was a Livaja free kick slotted into the net by Vranjes).

All in all a critical 3 points as we prepare for our critical test against PAOK in a couple week’s time. Before that though, we face Panaitolikos in Agrinio, a match which we really shouldn’t struggle with considering Panaitolikos currently sit second from last, one 0 points.

Progress on the stadium is continuing at a steady rate. This video shows some great aerial views over the stadium at sunrise this morning:

Cardoso Out – Kostenoglou In

Its been a hectic couple of weeks for AEK, though that seems to be the norm these days. To summarize:

• We were knocked out of Europa League after losing our first game to Trabzonspor in Athens, 2-3 (under Cardoso). By time the second leg came around, played in Turkey, Cardoso had been laid off and replaced by Kostenoglou and almost overnight the team was drastically improved. We played a great game in Turkey and won 0-2 with just one more goal being the difference between disqualification and advancing to the next round.
• We lost our first League game at home to Xanthi (under Cardoso) though won our second game in Tripolis by a score of 2-3 (this time under Kostenoglou). As with our Europa League games, our performance against Tripolis with Kostenoglou in charge of the team was a drastic improvement over what we saw against Xanthi a week prior.

After the performances under Kostenoglou against Trabzonspor and Tripolis, management had rightfully felt that they saw enough to award the job to Kostenoglou and in my opinion, I think it was the right move to make. The improvement in quality of our play seemingly overnight was massive and on top of that, a number of players expressed their support for Kostenoglou, a noticeable difference from what we saw under Cardoso. I know it was only two games, but what I saw from the team against Tripolis was a team who played as if they really wanted to win. I was doubting this team going into the start of the season but if they continue to play as they did in the second leg against Trabzonspor and as they did over the weekend against Tripolis, we definitely have a shot of going up against PAOK and Olympiakos for the title (though I think on paper, Olympiakos will definitely remain favourites… I watched some of their Champions League qualifiers and I must say, they look particularly good this year).

 

 

Special mention to Livaja and his celebration on the second goal, reminicent of Nikloaidis’ celebrations in front of the Skepasti: