OFI 0-2 AEK

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.

AEK 1-1 Panathinaikos

The 4th of March was the last time we were able to watch an AEK game… who would have thought then that it wouldn’t be until the 7th of June, over 3 months later, when we would next get the chance to watch AEK play. Needless to say, it was somewhat reassuring to have a game to look forward to again, even if the stadium was empty and the substitutes and staff on the bench were sitting a considerable distance apart from each other.

The result was somewhat of a disappointment if I’m being honest, as was the performance itself. Earlier in the day, PAOK had lost at home to Olympiakos by a score of 1-0, a result which as a result of the point deduction handed to PAOK would have given AEK the opportunity to move up to 2nd place in the standings with a win. Instead, it was Panathinaikos who were looking more likely to get away with the win at times.

It was clear the three month break from playing had taken its toll on the players; for most of the first half, we struggled to make many significant moves forward and only managed one opportunity on target. The second half was a slight improvement but again it was Panathinaikos who looked more convincing as they had one goal called back for a foul but then managed to go ahead in the 65th minute.

Thankfully we were able to find a response 10 minutes later when Livaja managed to finish from a tough angle but ultimately we were forced to settle for the 1 point. There was considerable discussion today regarding Carrera’s hesitation to make substitutions earlier on the match when it was clear something wasn’t working. Eventually Oliveira was brought on in the 67th minute but it wasn’t until the 87th when Araujo got put in the match for a chance to make a difference with just a few minutes left – Oliveira’s introduction made the impact we were looking for has he provided the assist on Livaja’s goal, but it makes me wonder if he could have had an even bigger impact if he was introduced to match earlier on.

As a result of the 1 point we received following yesterday’s draw, we now find ourselves level in 2nd place with PAOK on 52 points. Panathinaikos are further behind on 45 points and are less of a threat, though its whether we can find a way to clinch 2nd place which worries me – being able to do so would guarantee us the chance to try to qualify for Champions League next season, something which would naturally be a huge boost for the club.

 

Despite fans not being allowed in the stadium as part of measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, a number of supporters still gathered outside the stadium in Nea Filadelfeia and watched the match on a projector screen:

Speaking of the stadium, there’s been some more progress on its construction since my last post – most noticeably, the preparations are being in put place for the exterior facade to be mounted. It will be exciting to see some of the panels start to go up so we can start to really get a sense of what the completed stadium will look like from the outside.

A Quick Summary

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:

Jimenez Returns (Again)

I suppose before I discuss Jimenez’s return to AEK for a third stint, its worth backing up to our match against PAOK over the weekend since that was most likely the deciding factor which led to Ouzounidiz’s departure from the club.

Safe to say a 1-1 draw against PAOK, at home, wasn’t what any of us were hoping for. Not that it would have really mattered considering the title race is all but over but regardless, any opportunity to beat PAOK is one worth taking and the opportunity we were presented with on Sunday was as good as any. PAOK were forced to play over a half with a player less after a red card to Leo Jaba and for much of the second half they had no choice but to sit back and defend while we dictated the pace of the game. Despite this, we weren’t able to find a way to score until the 74th minute when Ponce scored yet again for AEK, salvaging a point for us but not much more.

As was often the case earlier in the season, Ouzounidis made some questionable calls which could very well have played a role in the final result. For example, Livaja was having a rather quiet game. Bakasetas on the other hand was playing quite well and was managing to get involved in a number of plays. For one reason or another though, Ouzounidis decided to sub off Bakasetas instead of Livaja despite the fact that the contribution from Bakasetas until then had been far more noticeable.

Unfortunately, too many of our games this season were overshadowed by poor decision making by Ouzounidis, even though he seemed to start figuring things out as the new year got started. The PAOK game suggested that hes still quite error prone and a change was most likely needed if we are to have any chance of at least winning the Cup (something which Jimenez succeeded at during his first stint).

Its hard to predict how much better off we’ll be with Jimenez in charge, but can it really get much worse? At least we know Jimenez has been able to get results in the past. The contract he will be singing is supposed to be a 1.5 year one, giving him the chance to start fresh again next season once this season comes to a close.

On top of the news of Jimenez’s return, it was also announced the Simoes had singed a new contract with AEK, a contract which sees him remain with the team until 2023. This is huge news as far as I’m concerned as we’ve really missed his contributions on the pitch lately. Hopefully he returns to the pitch with the same kind of performances as we were used to seeing from him. That, paired with the return of Jimenez, might just be what we need if we want to have a chance at winning the Cup.

AEK 2-3 Benfica

This sport can be so cruel at ties. Today’s match was, as is every match in the Champions League group stages, a crucial one. A win would have put us in a good position going forward, a draw would have at least salvaged a vital point, but instead we ended up on the losing end again. Except it could have been so different…

We got off to the worst start possible, conceding early after some disastrous defending which saw us fail to get to a lose rebound right in front of our own net. It got worse from that point on as another defensive lapse allowed Benfica to go 0-2 up before the half, this time after our defense failed to detect a run into our box which never should have been allowed so much space.

From that point on however, the momentum slowly started to shift in our favour starting from the sending off of Benfica’s Ruben Dias just before half time. The red card seemed to be all the motivation that we needed as the second half was almost all ours. While the first half got off to the dream start for Benfica, it looked like the second half might have been ours for the taking. Just seven minutes in we saw ourselves halve the defecit when Klonaridis did well to latch onto a ball that Hult sent right into his path. Klonaridis was again the hero when, ten minutes after his first goal, he managed to level the score for AEK.

From this point on all of OAKA must have believed that we are on the verge of one of our best nights in European competition but after all the effort to even the match at 2-2, it just wasn’t meant to be. Despite doing all they could to make their way back into the match, another defensive lapse, this time in the middle of the pitch, allowed Benfica to score a third time and take back the lead. What made this goal harder to swallow than the others though is the fact that we so easily should have gone up 3-2 instead when just a minute prior, Klonaridis went for the hat trick instead of teeing up Giakoumakis who would have had the easiest tap in to finish for the lead. It was a mistake on Klonaridis’ part for sure, one which he apologized for after the match, but its tough to look back on that moment and realize just how close we were to completing a comeback that we’d remember for ages.

Our defending today was awful, theres no denying that. But theres also no denying that it was an impressive effort to get as close as we did to getting the win. Unfortunately though, we walk away from our second match without a single point, something which leaves us in a pretty uncomfortable position. On paper its not over. Currently both Ajax and Bayern are level on 4 points while Benfica is just behind them with 3. Theoretically that still leaves us with a chance of at least finishing third in the group. Having said that, we still have to face Bayern twice and while they may not be experiencing their best season in recent memory, I still can’t see us coming away with much from either of our matches against them. As one commenter online said, the fact that they still aren’t comfortably in 1st place just means they’ll be that much more desperate for the win when they face us…

It was an unfortunate outcome to say the least, but at this point its not really worth dwelling on what could have been. Afterall, we face Olympiakos in just a few days, a match which I don’t see being an easy one for us. The fact that Olympiakos play a Europa League match on Thursday is a positive for us, considering they may be a little more fatigued than us. Having said that, they’ll also be just as anxious to get the win as us having just lost at home to PAOK in a game which they really should have won. One thing is for sure, if this game is anything like recent AEK – Olympiakos fixtures, we should be in for a good one.

You Can’t Win Them All…

I was hoping this post would be a celebration of AEK winning its first double in over forty years. It seems like almost all of my posts lately have been nothing but good news. Naturally, there will be times when we can’t seem to win even if things are going our way and yesterday was one such example.

To be honest, I was attending a wedding all day and wasn’t able to watch the match live (or follow it for that matter as the ceremony was taking place as the game was going on). I did record it on TV here but after reading and hearing about what happened, I can’t even really bring myself to watch it. By all accounts, it seems as though AEK, with the exception of Barkas, simply did not show up to play.

I expected more from the team since the momentum definitely seemed to be in our favour, but on the other hand I know PAOK was the team that had more to prove. In the end, it showed as I haven’t heard anyone say that PAOK wasn’t clearly the better side. Its unfortunate, but at least the loss comes down to simply a matter of being outplayed rather than any other off the pitch incidents. Worth noting is the fact that a Spanish ref officiated the match. Again I wasn’t able to see much aside from a few highlights but it sounds like he did a great job of calling the match fairly and keeping things under control. Maybe we should get foreign refs for all derbies next season…

Oh well, all this means is that we’ll have to wait for next year to clinch the double!

AEK 3-0 Panathinaikos

The league finally started back up this weekend and AEK wasted no time getting back into their groove. Going into the match, its fair to say that I didn’t expect PAO to really trouble us much and, aside from a few scary moments at the start of the match, it was a game that went pretty much as I expected.

Before I go into a bit of detail about the game, its worth going over some news from earlier this week. The courts in Greece finally released their final decisions regarding the PAOK-Olympiakos match, and the PAOK-AEK match and while some may say that PAOK got off lightly (which I think they did), the news was overall pretty positive from an AEK perspective. Specifically, we were awarded the 3-0 win on paper after the fiasco involving Savidis and his gun after storming the pitch during our match against PAOK.

Bearing that in mind, along with our win today over PAO, we now find ourselves four points away from winning the league. Thats right, four points is all we need from our next four games against Platanias, Levadeiakos, Kerkyra, and Apollon. Three of those teams make up the bottom three of the standings and considering this has been one of our most successful seasons in recent memory, the championship is practically guaranteed to be ours as far as I’m concerned. Now obviously we don’t want to jump to any conclusions but its hard to not get excited about that. On top of that, we still have a pretty good chance of advancing in the cup, our stadium is making good progress, our basketball club has already won the cup and is close to a spot in the Champions League final four, all of that is making this one great season to be an AEK supporter all around.

Back to today’s game: it was a bit of a nervous start for us as PAO managed to create some chances early on. They even forced a huge save by Barkas that kept things even at 0-0 after Coulibaly managed to get a shot off from close range. Once things settled down though after about 10 minutes of play, it was mostly AEK from that point onwards. Araujo opened the scoring for us after yet another tremendous finish before Galo calmly put away a second goal for us. Araujo featured once again on the score sheet after scoring again to make it 3-0 and seal the win for us.

It helped our cause that PAO’s Insua received a red card in the first half but its safe to say that AEK were always going to be favourites against this PAO team. Araujo had an exceptional game once again, but Lazaros, Hult, and Galo also played great. On the other hand, I was a little concerned by Vranjes who at times seemed a little too relaxed in defense. Usually he’s extremely solid so I’m not too worried, but I feel like it was one of his weaker performances with AEK this season.

Our first goal is definitely the highlight of the match (and most likely of the week), but the other two goals were also very well taken. Its also worth keeping an eye out for Lazaros’ crossbar. If Lazaros had managed to score that, we would have had yet another contender for goal of the season from him.

At A Loss For Words

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in Greek football, something happens that makes you realize you haven’t seen anything yet. What unfolded in Toumba today proved yet again that you can really never know what to expect when it comes to this league (though calling it a “league” would be a little too generous… maybe “zoo” would be more appropriate).

It all started with what happened early Sunday morning (or late Saturday night for those of us in North America) as I mentioned yesterday. PAOK’s punishment for what happened two weeks earlier in Toumba were reversed as they were given back 3 points and were allowed to play with fans in the stadium for today’s match. How those decisions were made is beyond me, but what was more important today was the game at hand against the only team that could challenge us for the league.

The game got off to what was surprisingly a quiet start off the pitch. Little fan trouble from what I could tell and no issues in the locker rooms either, though the match itself was a dirty one. Tackles were coming from both sides and as would be expected, it wasn’t the kind of environment that encouraged flowing football. Eventually things settled down and we did see some chances for both sides, including scoring opportunities for Araujo, Livaja, and Bakasetas.

The match was heading for a 0-0 stalemate when at the 89th minute, PAOK scored from a corner. Or did they? Replays showed that a PAOK player was clearly in an offside position and though the referee originally indicated that the goal was a good one, he seemed to track back on that decision. After consulting with his linesman and dealing with pressure from both sets of players, he seemed to reverse his decision (a call which I believe was a good one, though “experts” in Greece seem undecided on whether the goal should have counted or not).

Now you might be wondering, what was so odd about that? A fairly dirty game, a few chances for both sides, and a last minute winner are all to be expected in a derby. Well, it was after the referee changed his mind on the goal that things unfortunately turned ugly. What happened next was honestly something I would never have expected to see, not even in Greek football.

At this point in the game with the score reversed back to 0-0, Ivan Savidis, owner of PAOK, stormed on to the pitch and instructed his players to leave the pitch. I guess he was attempting to protest the refs decision to disallow the goal? In either case, it didn’t help to calm the situation down at all and he faced resistance from his own players after they refused to leave the pitch and insisted on finishing the match. The situation escalated from there as Savidis made his way towards the refs and AEK’s bench, supposedly cursing officials including referee Kominis and a number of AEK staff members.

What made all of this almost unbelievable is one small detail that wasn’t originally shown on TV. Pictures that surfaced not long after all this happened show Savidis walking onto the pitch with a pistol strapped to his waist. Yes, thats right. PAOK’s owner walks on to the pitch and not only does he start threating officials and staff of AEK, but he does so with a gun on him. I can honestly say I’ve seen it all in Greek football now. I don’t know if Savidis thought he was back in Russia, where maybe that kind of thing happens regularly, but I think its safe to say you can understand why AEK players and staff made their way to the dressing room shortly after that.

After the incident involving Savidis, the refereeing team also made their way to the dressing rooms and it was at this point where the result of the match was completely up in the air. Would the game continue? Would it be ended as a draw? It took around two hours before a decision was made and the decision that was officially declared by the ref was one that not even the radio commentators had ever seen before. Officially, the ref claimed a 1-0 PAOK win and declared the game “called off” because AEK refused to re-enter the pitch. So the goal counted, then was taken back, and was then re-awarded to PAOK after the fact. Yep, I don’t think I’ll ever see a day like this again in Greek Football.

Now, at this point the match might be awarded 1-0 for PAOK but I think its safe to say that this is far from over. This will definitely be taken to court, and AEK will have a strong case for having the result reversed in some way. I’m sure it will be a couple weeks at least until we know what officially the outcome of this match is. Its also worth noting that there is talk of the government shutting down the league, indefinitely or for the remainder of the season. I’m sure the headlines of newspapers throughout Greece will be pretty interesting…

PAOK Penalties Reversed

You can never truly know what to expect when it comes to football in Greece. The morning of our game with PAOK in Toumba (literally the morning as the decision was made at 1 AM local time in Greece), PAOK was granted two of their demands after appealing the recent penalties inflicted on them due to crowd trouble before their game with Olympiakos.

What this means for us is that now we will play in a Toumba that will likely be packed rather completely empty as originally planned. Whether this will play in our advantage or not remains to be seen but PAOK will definitely be under pressure from their supporters as it is now them who are playing catchup with us.

On top of the reversal of the supporters ban, their 3 point deduction was also reversed. Had it stood, they would have been 5 points behind us before our game even started but as it stands now, they are only 2 points behind. It definitely puts more pressure on us as we now simply cannot afford to lose. A draw wouldn’t be the end of the world as PAOK have the slightly more difficult schedule for the remainder of the season, but this game really is a must win now. A win would put us 5 points clear with 5 games left to play (4 of which should, on paper at least, be fairly easy wins). Its safe to say that either way, our game with PAOK tomorrow is most likely the most important one we will play all season.

One Step Closer!

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.