After yesterday’s 0- 0 draw between Panathinaikos and PAOK, AEK were once again presented with a golden opportunity to go 2nd in the playoffs and this time around, we were able to capitalize. Our performance today was definitely an improvement over what we saw last weekend during the game against Panathinaikos. Sure, OFI are the weakest of the teams we’ll face in the playoffs, but it was reassuring nonetheless to see us manage to put together a few significant attacks going forward. Livaja was on the score sheet once again following his well taken header to close out the first half, but it was Verde’s perfectly taken goal which was the one that received the most attention with some beautiful footwork followed topped off by a perfectly placed shot. Verde might not have been our top scorer this season but when he has scored, its often been a goal worth watching more than once.
The win today puts AEK as the sole occupant of 2nd place with 55 points – ahead of us are Olympiakos on 72 points while we are trailed by PAOK on 53 points. We’re clearly not out of the woods yet as it wouldn’t take much for us to be overtaken and from what I’ve heard and read following’s yesterday’s draw, PAOK looked more dangerous than the 0-0 scoreline would suggest. Thankfully, we seem to have put last week’s performance behind us and are heading in the right direction for the time being at least.
In other news, we made our first significant singing of the season with a three year deal with Bright Enobakhare. The 22 year old Nigerian striker was previously with Wolves but has spent much of his time on loan – can’t say I’m particularly familiar with him, but it seems like a promising singing and I’m glad he isn’t yet another player for us on loan.
Its been quite a while since I last posted here – to be honest, I haven’t really been able to watch any of our games this season and for the most part have only been following play-by-plays and radio broadcasts. That’s not to say a lot hasn’t happened since my last post though. No, we’re not champions; actually it wasn’t a great season at all truth be told, but there are some positives signs for the future of the club. To re-cap, here’s a summary of what’s happened so far this season until now:
After Kostenoglou took over for Cardoso, we did eventually sign a new coach: Italian Massimo Carrera. Not the most experienced coach we’ve seen, but that didn’t worry me. After all, we’ve had some fairly experienced coaches in the past who didn’t always amount to much. In either case, the players have said great things about his coaching style (and some awful things about Cardodo’s style since his departure). The team has, for the most part, played quite well under Carrera and I suspect that with a full summer to prepare and a few more signings, we could do good things with him. Since Carrera took over, in the league we won 9, drew 3, and lost 1; not amazing, but enough to secure our spot in 3rd place. Realistically we weren’t going to beat Olympiakos in the standings this season, though if we had Carrera from the start, we might have had a chance of finishing above PAOK.
One noteworthy singing during the Winter transfer window was the singing of Araujo on loan from Las Palmas. He’s been a solid player since he’s been back and its safe to say that most AEK fans will hope Melissanidis does what he can to sign him on for at least a few seasons.
The league has ended, with AEK in 3rd and 8 points behind PAOK. Having said that, PAOK, along with Xanthi, was handed a point deduction due to co-ownership rules between the two teams being broken. That means that PAOK drop to just 1 point above AEK which should put us in a good position to overtake them in the playoffs.
Speaking of playoffs, they begin next weekend with AEK facing Panathinaikos on the 15th of March.
Other playoffs news: I was just reading that Greece has put measures into place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, which include not allowing spectators to sporting events. This means that, unfortunately, there will be no fans in attendance for our first playoff game against Panathinaikos.
We’ve made some progress in the Cup, making it to the semi-finals so far and beating Aris 2-1 in the first leg. Shaky score going into the second leg, but we’ve already beaten them up north once this season and should have a good chance at doing enough to make it to the finals.
Some noteworthy basketball news, AEK legend Nikos Zisis has returned to the club after 15 years abroad. Hes made an impact since joining with some great performances until now and its clear he’ll still have more to give to the club.
Of course, its always worth showing some updated footage on the progress of our stadium. This video, shot yesterday, might be one of my favourites yet:
Lastly, I’d like to end on something that put a huge smile on my face. Stadium related again, this was some footage shot a few weeks ago when some supporters made their way into the stadium, and of course, started doing what they do best:
AEK took huge two steps towards “the Double” this past week after beating Platanias 1-0 in the league and beating Larissa by the same scoreline for the Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg.
The scoreline for the game against Platanias might seem disappointing at first glance, but we did have our chances and Platanias, as would have been expected, played a rather defensive game. Our lone goal was scored by Lazaros, one of the players currently approaching the end of their contracts. It must be said that between the game against Platanias and the cup game against Larissa, hes making a valid case for a contract extension.
Disappointing scoreline or not, it was yet another huge result with regards to our title chase. We’re currently two points ahead of PAOK, but keep in mind a court decision hasn’t yet been reached so we are still very likely to end up being further ahead than that.
The nicest part about the win in Crete against Platanias is that it sets us up to be in the position to win the league tomorrow, at home against Levadeiakos (assuming the court decision goes our way). With this in mind, AEK fans from across Greece, and indeed from across the world, have picked up tickets to the game with the hopes of seeing AEK clinch our first Championship since 1994. From what I’ve been reading, its looking like OAKA might actually sell out which would, as I’m sure we could all imagine, lead to a great atmosphere come kick off.
The Cup game was a rather tense one for me to follow online as with each passing minute, our chances of going through to the final were getting slimmer and slimmer. As the 90th minute approached and the officials signaled for 5 minutes of extra time, it became increasingly clear the some kind of “miracle” was needed for us to get that crucial goal which would put us through to the final. Of course, who other than Lazaros would find a way to get the winner, and with yet another gorgeous goal.
The goal was the talk of Greece the next day, and rightfully so as it was a beauty. It sets us up for a final against PAOK for the second year in a row and all I can hope for is that the result isn’t as disappointing as last year’s result was.
AEK took one huge step closer to the Championship today after beating Panionios 1-0 at home. However, it wasn’t our victory alone but rather what happened with PAOK and Oly that has made the difference. Prior to our game today, Asteras clinched an unbelievable 3-2 over PAOK in the 98th minute, a minute after PAOK had made it 2-2 in the 97th minute. On top of that, Olmympiakos and PAO played to a 1-1 draw after ten man PAO managed to tie the score in the 87th minute. Both those results mean we are now two points clear of PAOK and seven points clear of Oly.
All of that could change depending on whether Oly get awarded three points and PAOK get three points deducted after last week’s fiasco in Toumba, something which would also play out nicely in our favour. On top of that we play PAOK next weekend, a game which if we win could see us ultimately move eight points clear of them.
As for our game today, well it was really a game of two halves. The first half was rather enjoyable to watch as an AEK supporter. We created numerous chances (I think we had 13 by the end of the first half) and had a few legitimate goal scoring opportunities including a tet-a-tet which Araujo failed to put away. It was Livaja who made the difference though after latching onto a Galo cross and heading the ball in.
On top of attacking well, we also pressured Panionios relentlessly, so much so that they didn’t have a single chance at the end of the first 45 minutes. We defended well when they did move forward and overall looked well on track to sealing the three points.
The second half however was a different story. We were sloppy and careless, gifted Panionios way too much space, and struggled to really build and substantial attacks. I’ll blame it on fatigue for now, but hopefully we don’t see more of the same when we play in Toumba next week otherwise we won’t get away so easily. Thankfully, Panionios’ attack was fairly disjointed and failed to really threaten much and we were able to do enough to hold on.
Our match against Panionios today wasn’t the only match we played this week. I never got a post up about it, but we also faced Larissa in the first round of the Cup Semi-Finals. Unfortunately, the news to report isn’t good. We lost 2-1 which, on the bright side of things means we have a crucial away goal and should be in a good position to clinch our spot in the final when we play them again in Athens. The bad news about the result is that our undefeated streak has now come to an end. Its sad to the streak, which lasted around 24 games, come to an end like that but really in the grand scheme of things streak or no streak will hardly matter if we manage to hold on and win the league.
Like I said, I’m not worried about this result. Larissa are hardly a threat and a regrouped AEK should have no trouble beating this team when we face again in Athens.
What a season this has been for us AEK supporters so far. Away from the blog for one week and I have not one, not two, but three incredibly important AEK stories to discuss. Whats more is that it all took place within the span of about four days. Lets start at the beginning though:
Last Thursday we faced Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League Round of 32. The match, the first of two, took place in Athens and as I’m sure most of you know ended in a 1-1 draw. The result is a disappointing one seeing as we’ve conceded the away goal without coming away with a win, but it hardly signals the end of the road for us in Europe. A win in Kiev will guarantee we go through, but so will a 2-2 draw (or any draw really that doesn’t end 0-0 or 1-1).
I honestly have hope that we can get the result we need. We’ve already seen this team perform well with their backs against the wall this season (just look at the comeback wins against Olympiakos this season for example) and on top of that, we outplayed the Ukranians in Athens. The results might not suggest that, but we were genuinely the better team and one look at the match stats confirms that. For example, we created 14 chances (while they had 3), and 6 of our chances were on target (compared to their 1 on target). We also had 64% possession and had double the completed passes. I know this counts for little when the result isn’t favourable, but if anything it gives me hope that we have what it takes to advance.
Having said that, its worth keeping in mind that we will be without Vranjes and Livaja after they both picked up yellow cards, and both those absences will be a huge loss for us. Being without Livaja is something we could live with, but missing Vranjes will leave a gap for sure, so hopefully both Lambropoulos and Chyrgrinskiy are ready come kick off.
Apologies for the poor quality highlights, it was all I could really find on youtube:
To help us get over the disappointment in the Europa League from a few days prior, our Basketball club took part in the Greek Cup final on Saturday against Olympiakos. This was our first chance of winning the Cup since 2001 and our first chance of winning any silverware since 2002 so needless to say, there was a lot of expectation. On top of that, its been a rather celebratory year for the team as they’ve been celebrating the team’s 50th Anniversary since winning the Cup Winner’s Cup and in the process becoming the first Greek team to win a European trophy in a major sport. Needless to say, the stage was set for what was bound to be a tight game and neither team disappointed.
Ultimately, we were able to do more than enough to come out on top after having thoroughly outplayed Olympiakos. It was a close game throughout but it was clear AEK we’re the stronger side for most of the game as I can only remember one point at which Olympiakos had the lead. Having said that, both teams played a great game and it was one of the more enjoyable basketball games I’ve watched this season, made even more enjoyable thanks to our 88-83 win. Its yet another win against Olympiakos across both Football and Basketball as we also beat Olympiakos’ basketball team earlier this season.
As was to be expected, the team’s reception at the Airport in Athens as they returned from Crete was quite the party:
And for those who didn’t get the chance to watch the match, it can be watched in its entirety here:
The weekend only got better from that point on as next up was our football match against Xanthi. Now, a league game at home against a respectable but non-threatening opponent would normally not be cause for much celebration but what happened during our 4-0 win was something worth noting. In fact, it was downright historic. Why you might ask? It all comes down to the fact that Vranjes, a centre back, had scored a hat trick by the 33rd minute. Never in the history of 1st division Greek football has a centre back scored a hat trick. Even Vranjes himself has never scored more than 3 goals in an entire season yet here he was, scoring 3 goals in 33 minutes.
Amazing really, and even more amazing when you consider some of the great centre backs we’ve had over the years: Manolas, Dellas, and Papastathopoulos are just a few that come to mind. Almost equally amazing is the fact that its been over ten years since someone scored a hat trick for AEK: the last time that happened was when Liberopoulos scored 3 in a 5-2 win over Aigaleo back in 2007.
The win, as is every win from this point onwards, was huge for us as PAOK won yet again, meaning they’re still 2 points up on us. They have two tough games coming up followed by their match against us so as long as we can keep the pressure on, theres a very good chance we can find ourselves in the lead in a few weeks time.
After a less than ideal weekend, our football and basketball teams got back to winning ways in the Cup and Champions League respectively. For our football side, it was a 4-0 away win against Panaitolikos that all but secures us a place in the next round courtesy of goals from Lazaros, Bakasetas, Galo, and Giakoumakis.
A win for AEK was always going to be the more likely result, but it was nice to also see the team get back to goal scoring ways after they struggled so much over the weekend against Apollon. It was a pretty strong lineup that Jimenez fielded today with only Galanopoulos being the non-regular. Otherwise it was a lineup similar to what we’ve been used to seeing this season which I didn’t mind considering the team will have a couple weeks to rest before they return after the break. One noticeable player missing was Simoes, who was recently diagnosed with an injury that should keep him sidelined for about 3-4 weeks.
All in all a good result which should give us a chance to rest some key players when the next match takes place in early January. I’m reading up on the match and watching the recording as I write this, but from what I’m seeing it looks like we were clearly the stronger side and generally played some fairly attractive football. That’s a relief to see considering how poor we looked over the weekend. Its promising to see that the team was able to turn things around quickly and not dwell on what happened last weekend for too long, and its also nice to see Barkas get the cleansheet. Considering we don’t really know what will happen with regards to Anestis’ contract, we’ll need all the goaltending we can get from Barkas and Tsintotas.
It wasn’t only our football club in action today as we also had a basketball game against Venezia for the Champions League. I had mixed feelings going into this game about whether we’d pull off a result considering we managed to beat them in Italy, but we also didn’t look too great against PAOK over the weekend. Luckily, our basketball team was also able to put their disappointing result behind them and come away with a 84-64 win.
The win was a huge one for us as it puts us 3rd place in our group and in a good spot for qualification to the next round. Green finished the night with 19 points and 10 assists while Mavroeidis also had 19 points complimented by 6 rebounds. Other noteworthy performances came from Sakota who finished with 10 points and Harris and James who both finished with 8 points.
Despite the result and the fact that we find ourselves in 3rd place, the group is still very tight with 3rd to 6th all tied on 14 points. Its worth remembering that the top four teams from each group advance so we’re safe where we are at the moment, but any poor results going forward could be the difference between qualifying and going home early.
Another week and we’re still top of the league. Its still far too close for comfort but does it ever feel good.
With the way the standings are right now, every match is a crucial as the one before and today was no exception after both Oly and PAOK won on Saturday. The match went according to plan for the most part, though Levadeiakos were a pretty stubborn side to break down for much of the first half. As the commentators pointed out, they were playing with all men behind the ball for much of the match which made it tough for AEK to find space.
We did find space eventually though in the 52nd minute, with Araujo sending a pass Livaja’s way. Livaja, as is to be expected with someone in the form that hes currently in, cleanly chipped the ball over the Levadeiakos keeper to open the scoring. Araujo had a great chance to make it 2-0 for AEK when was clear on goal himself, only for his chip to just be tipped away by the keeper.
The goal caused Levadeiakos to open up a bit which gave us enough space to find a second goal, this time when Araujo was able to convert after a beautiful ball was sent up the pitch by Tsintotas. Speaking of Tsintotas, he was in nets instead of Anestis today as a result of Anestis and AEK not yet having settled on a new contract from what I could understand.
Overall it was a decent match from an AEK stand point, though truth be told we were hardly challenged by Levadeiakos. They did come close in the dying minutes of the game but even had they scored it would have been too little too late. The statistics yet again showed pretty much how the game went, with AEK having 63% possession and 16 shots in total.
That wasn’t the only game we had lately, as we also had a midweek cup match against Kalithea. The game, which ended 3-2 in AEK’s favour, was more about giving some playing time to reserve players as AEK had already clinched top spot in the group. The roster featured players like Giakoumakis, Vlachomitros, Vinicius, and Giannoutsos. The biggest surprise however Christos Giousis, an 18 year old midfielder who had never yet played in a professional match for AEK. His debut was, safe to say, an exceptional one. Not only did he end up scoring 2 out of our 3 goals, but he generally looked very composed with the ball at his feet.
You can see what I mean here:
The other scorer from the game was, of all people, Tzanetopoulos. It has to be said that even though Giakoumakis didn’t score, he also had a good game which is promising to see considering we all know his potential. He was involved in a number of plays and even he might not have hit the target, his effort was good to see.
Well that was a little too close for comfort. It wasn’t until 80 minutes in to the game that we got the winning goal by Araujo but the 3 points are what matter most as far as I’m concerned.
This game was a crucial one for a few reasons. First of all we desperately needed a win seeing as its been weeks since we’ve won a match in the league and my confidence in the team was starting to take a hit. On top of that, today’s result gives us a great chance to regain some ground in the standings and put some distance between us and Olympiakos after PAO won their derby against the Reds yesterday by a score of 1-0. With our win today we currently sit in 2nd with 17 points, two behind Atromitos who are in 1st with 19. That could change tomorrow depending on how PAOK’s game with Tripolis goes but regardless of what happens there, we now find ourselves up 3 points over Olympiakos which is always nice to see.
It wasn’t an easy game, which is to be expected seeing as playing against Panionios in Nea Smyrni is a match that can often go either way. Today though, AEK were clearly the better team and if it wasnt for some amazing saves by the Panionios keeper we could have comfortably won this game 2-0 or 3-0. The team did well overall, but we still need more composure in the box.
Defensively we were pretty sound and managed to get the ball back in our control with relative ease. Aside from a few long balls or balls in from set plays, Panionios never really looked too close to scoring.
Our midfield also looked pretty good and what I liked to see was that we mixed things up in the middle of the pitch. We would slow things down at times only to then launch a quick attack from a bunch of one touch passes which would lead to the Panionios defenders scrambling back to their positions. It seemed to work most of the time, but I thought the closer we got to the net the more predictable we became as most attacks often ended up on the wings. We definitely had our chances and as I mentioned earlier some great goalkeeping was all the really kept Panionios in it.
Unfortunately it wasn’t all good for news for AEK. Mantalos, who had another great game for AEK, had to leave the pitch later in the match after appearing to be in much discomfort. Xrays will take place tomorrow to determine just how serious the injury is, but the early reports don’t sound good.
Today’s game wasn’t the only match we played this week. We also had a Cup game earlier in the week on Thursday, against 3rd division side Apollon Larissa. Its safe to say that it was clear the team we were playing against was a 3rd division after we comfortably breezed past them with a score of 7-0. The game had a feel of a friendly really but it doesn’t hurt the confidence of the team to see some goals go in.
The whole game for those who wish to watch it is available here:
Alternatively a highlight video is also available:
After facing Lamia for the second time in less than a week, we managed to come away with yet another win with a slightly more convincing scoreline.
I’m just watching the game now and while it might not have been the best game we’ve played this season, it wasn’t an awful performance. More importantly, it gets us an important first win in the Cup against a team that is the toughest opponent in our group (with the other two being Kallithea and Apollon Larissa).
The game featured many of our starters but we also saw from the likes of Tsintotas, Vinicius, and Traustason, all of whom had pretty decent games. We also saw some familiar sides amongst the opposition as both Alex Dacol and Chrisantus were part of the squad and both made their way onto the pitch later in the game as subs.
Today’s win was an important one for sure but its safe to say that the team’s focus was probably directed to the upcoming game against Olympiakos before the final whistle was even blown today. Ticket sales are looking pretty good so far with around 15,000 tickets having already been sold. Add into the equation the 11,000 season tickets and thats already about 25,000 supporters with over three days to go until the game. At this rate I can see anywhere between 40,000 and 50,000 in attendance on Sunday.
If you’re reading this, you probably noticed that I never wrote anything about our 2-1 loss to PAOK in the Cup final. Really it came down to not wanting to write anything since that game was a disaster from before kickoff. It started with the terrible organization, with the game almost being cancelled since the seats didn’t have numbers on them. Then came the fighting between “supporters” within the stadium as well as outside of it. Of course we had the game itself, which was a disappointment on every level thanks to our awful performance and the offside game winner for PAOK.
Overall, not the kind of final I was hoping for. Certainly not the kind of final that will be remembered fondly throughout Greece by fans of the sport aside aside from the PAOK fans.
Thankfully, we were able to somewhat put all that behind us with not one great result, but two. It started with our basketball team managing, after nine years, to finally beat PAO. Even better, the win tied up our semi-final series with them at one game apiece. It was a tight game until the end, as many of our derbies have been this season, but a huge win regardless which gives us enormous momentum heading into the third game. The win only ties the series and we still have plenty of work to do, but to finally get past this hurtle and win a game against our cross town rivals shows that its definitely possible. Will it be enough to get us to the finals? Well I hate to say that PAO are still favourites but at this point nothing is guaranteed anymore.
The day only got better from that point on as we headed north to take on PAOK for the first round of the playoffs. We clearly came out seeking to make a statement after the loss to PAOK in the cup and for the majority of the first half we were easily the stronger team. As the commentator on the radio put it at one point, AEK seemed like the home team as we outplayed PAOK throughout the pitch. The breakthrough came early on as Didac, who had a great game along with most of our defense, latched on to a perfect ball from Mantalos and neatly tucked in the finish. His goal would prove to the deciding factor as neither side would find a way to score from then on, but there were certainly chances.
The game was a great way to put everything from the cup behind us as not only does it get us a huge three points away in Toumba, but it puts us first in the playoff table after Panionios and PAO tied earlier in the day (though Panionios were unfortunate not to come away with the win). Its still early but to already find ourselves in first after starting with fewer points than PAOK and PAO is the best outcome we could have hoped for after the first round of playoffs. Our next match is at home against Panionios, a game I feel like we should comfortably take, while PAO host PAOK in Athens. I could personally see that game going either way as PAO will be seeking to get some revenge of their own after being knocked out of the cup while PAOK will be looking to recover lost ground after losing, not to mention they’ll also be out to prove that they were legitimately the better team against PAO in the cup semi-finals.
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