As I was hoping earlier last week, Kyrgiakos will not play at this game. Neither will Alexopoulos due to being suspended (along with Scocco and Pelletieri). Since Juanfran is injured, and neither Alexopoulos or Kyrgiakos will be playing it is possible that we might see N’Siambamfumu, our recently aquired French centre back, play! This will be a good game to test him out since we cannot loose or gain a position in the standings.
The squad will be Saja, Arambatzis, Kafes, Geraldo, Majstorovic, Nsaliwa, Edinho, Manduca, N’Siambamfumu, Koutromanos, Pliatsikas, Blanco, Burns, Georgeas, Tachtsidis, Hetemaj, El Hadji Diouf, Pavlis, and Gentsoglou.
It is quite likely that we will see many of the younger players play including Pavlis.
An uninspired performance by AEK means that second place is now slipping out of reach for this season.
AEK, who had many of its main players (Kyrgiakos, Kafes, Scocco, Juanfran, Nsaliwa) remain in Athens due to either cards or injury, barely managed to get one point in Komotini today after a rather low class performance by the team.
There seemed to be no smooth connection from defence to midfield to offence today, as we barely managed to create any significant chances in front of the Panthrakikos. Passing between AEK players was horrible, and the whole team seemed to be disorganized.
The starting lineup was Saja, Georgeas, Alexopoulos, Majstorovic, Geraldo, Pelletieri, Hetemaj, Manduca, Blanco, Edinho, and Djebbour.Clearly, this was far from our average starting XI, which could have perhaps been one reason the team was not in top form. Without Nsaliwa and Kafes in the middle, clever passes just werent happening. Hetemaj didnt play a great game, and neither did Manduca. Although we started with three of our most attacking players (Edinho, Blanco, and Djebbour) we were very weak and hardly managed to cause Panthrakikos any stress. Hopefully we will see Kafes, Nsaliwa, and Scocco back in there for the Semi-Final game against Panserraikos later this week, or else we will unlikely see any goals.
Panthrakikos scored first, and their goal should be a strong candidate for most pathetic goal of the year due to unorganized defence and bad luck for AEK. Majstorivic tried to clear a loose ball forward but it unfortunately deflected off of the foot of a Panthrakikos player and into AEK’s net.
Videos will be posted once they are available.
Links to reports will be posted once they are available as well.
AEK put five past Panserraikos in Serres this evening, with two goals coming from Blanco, two from Djebbour, and one from Scocco. Panserraikos’ goal came from a penalty.
AEK, in what was arguably one of its best performances this season had no trouble with the team from Serres. Considering Pnaserraikos had just come back from beating Panathinaikos in Athens earlier this week, many thought this game could have been much different. But, with some great plays and passing by the midfield, there was no trouble in getting the ball up and creating chances.
Nsaliwa and Pelletierri (Kafes is still out) along with Tachtsidis and Scocco a little further up, managed to set up many plays with ease, and managed to feed Blanco and Djebbour withmany good passes and crosses. Djebbour scored another two (it was Djebbour’s birthday today).
The defence, as always, was fine. Panserraikos only managed to create a few decent chances throughout, but Saja was ready on most of them anyways. Alexopoulos replaced Kyrgiakos (who had seven yellows) for this one and did a fine job (he did get AEK a penalty from a hand ball but it was an unavoidable mistake). Majstorovic was as always, extremely solid. Missed a chance from a header off of a Scocco free kick which just barely missed. Geraldo and Georgeas took the wings at back and did fine. Juanfran should be back soon but against a team like Panserraikos, Geraldo was, although a little slow, just fine. Georgeas was quite good as he normally has been this season.
The midfield, as I mentioned earlier, was great, and was a critical part of the team’s performance today. Passes were accurate and made with confidence. Some nice crosses by Tachtsidis caused Panserraikos’ defence trouble, especially one right to Djebbour which allowed him to score with ease.
The offence was nothing less than great. Blanco scored two, one from a scramble in the box and one from a nice shot.
The subs were Hetemaj, Diouf, and Burns. Both Burns and Diouf wanted to score but by time they came in not as many chances were being created.
Overall, this game shows just how much progress the teams made since Bajevic has taken over, considering that AEK’s earlier encounter this season with Panserraikos at OAKA ended in a 0-0 draw. The team is starting to gel well together and hopefully, if we can hold on to key figures like Pelletieri over the summer, we should have a much better run in the championship next season.
By the way, we play the same team in two weeks for the cup Semi finals. Today’s result shows alot of hope, and I believe that AEK will manage to reach the Cup final with ease.
Lets see what AEK Baltimore and AEKMAN74 have to say about today’s performance.
There is a video of the goals below. Sorry for the poor quality, it is all that is available at the moment.
AEK, after beating Iraklis 1-0 at home AEK are now tied for second place with PAOK and Ergotelis.
AEK-Iraklis
AEK got the ball in the net early on in the first minute of the game however the goal was dissalowed because of an offside call. Ignacio Scocco scored, his first goal in the Superleague, in the 14th minute off of a centre cross by Blanco.
After the first goal by AEK the offense slowed down and created far fewer chances. Pelletieri missed a few shots, and both Djebour and Blanco could have scored on a few ocassions but failed to capitalize.
Overall, AEK played a decent performance, however their game will have to improve if they are to get the six points from their next two games with Panionios and Olympiakos, both away. Kyrgiakos, Scocco, Djebbour, Blanco and Peletierri all had great performances. Majstorovic and Ramos however were error prone and made many dangerous passes. One such backpass by Majstorovic almost led to a goal for the opposition.
The three substitutes for AEK were Hetemaj (for Lagos), Edinho (for Djebbour), and Georgeas (for Ramos).
The MVP for AEK was Sebastien Saja, who played an excellent game and made a great to save to deny Iraklis a 1-1 draw.
Here are the the results from the other Superleague matches this weekend.
AEK ended their second friendly of the preseason against German Second Division team Greuther Furth in a 2-2 draw. AEK went down early on in the first minute and by the end of the scond half they were down 0-2. Two goals however, in the 83rd and 85th minutes of the game allowed AEK to catch up and come out with a score of 2-2. The first goal for AEK was, according to AEK’s website an own goal and the second goal was scored by Pliatsikas off of a cross from Georgeas. It was a hard and low shot out of the keepers reach.
Apparently the second half was a much better performance than the first.
The lineup was Fisekis, Ramos (64′ Koutromanos), Perez (who was on trial for Donis to see) (46′ Georgeas), Majstorovic (74′ Alexopoulos), Papastathopoulos (61′ Geraldo), Nsaliwa (46′ Rivaldo), Kafes (75′ Pliatsikas), Kone (46′ Hetemaj), Lagos (46′ Zorbas), Burns (46′ Pavlis), Blanco (Tachtsidis).
Back at EURO 2004 in Portugal AEK contributed to the Greek National Team with many of its star players such as Traianos Dellas, Nikos Liberopoulos, Kostas Katsourani, Theodoros Zagorakis, Vassilis Tsiartas, Demis Nikolaidis, Michalis Kapsis, and Vassilis Lakis. Today only Dellas and Liberopoulos remain with AEK. Although many players such as Demis and Zagorakis have retired from professional football many are still active but no longer with AEK. Many of these players left after the financial troubles AEK had and decided to play with bigger teams such as Benfica after their performance was seen after Greece’s EURO 2004 victory.
Although many Greek international players are no longer with AEK, AEK still plays many other players who represent their own national team. Daniel Toszer played against Greece with Hungary during EURO 2008 qualifications. Greece will play against Sweden for their first group stage match at the EURO. Playing with Sweden will be newly aqquired AEK Swedish defender Daniel Majstorovic. EURO 2008 host nation Austria will also be playing with AEK starting goalkeeper Jurgen Macho. He might see considerably more playing time after the main Austrian starting goal keeper has been left with an injury that will mean he will have to sit out the tournament.
AEK also has many players playing with the Greek National U-21 and U-19 teams. Kone, Pliatsikas, Papastathopoulos, and Antonis Rikka all play with the Greece U-21 team while Michalis Pavlis plays with the Greece U-19 team.
AEK also has some players playing on other International teams including Giorgos Tofas who plays with the Cyprus National Team, Perparim Hetemaj who plays with Finland, and Tamanadi Nsaliwa who plays with Canada.
AEK Archives 