AEK announce squad to play Celtic in Champions League
AEK Athens have released the list of players eligible to participate in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round against Celtic, but Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy is missing with injury.
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During a recent friendly match against Atromitos (0:0), 31-year old Ukrainian centre-back Chygrynskiy went down with a knee problem which will keep him on the sidelines for AEK’s first Champions League matches of the 2017/2018 campaign. Head coach Marinos Ouzounidis can choose between Marios Oikonomou, Vasilis Lampropoulos and Uros Cosic to play in the centre of defence.
Left-back Giorgos Giannoutsos and Albanian midfielder Astrit Ajdarevic have also not been included in the squad to play Celtic.
Here are the 24 AEK players registered to compete in the two matches against the Scottish champions:
Goalkeepers: Vasilis Barkas, Panagiotis Tsintotas, Serafeim Giannikoglou.
Defenders: Michalis Bakakis, Helder Lopes, Marios Oikonomou, Vasilis Lampropoulos, Rodrigo Galo, Uros Cosic, Niklas Hult.
Midfielders: Andre Simoes, Petros Mantalos, Konstantinos Galanopoulos, Erik Moran, Giannis Botos*, Christos Giousis*, Alef.
Forwards: Christos Almpanis, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Marko Livaja, Anastasios Bakasetas, Viktor Klonaridis, Ezequiel Ponce, Lucas Boye.
*List B players
AEK travel to Glasgow for the first match against Celtic on August 8, before the Greek champions host the return in Athens on August 14.
In a blow to Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, key French striker Moussa Dembele is out for two weeks with a knock and cannot play in the two games with AEK. In the past couple of seasons, 22-year old Dembele has spearheaded the Celtic attack, scoring 26 Scottish Premiership goals in 54 appearances.
