Aris thrash Greens in Thessaloniki
SUPER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 3
Aris cruised to a convincing 4-0 victory over Panathinaikos in Sunday’s late-night North vs. South derby clash at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium in Thessaloniki, with Apostolos Terzis’ players earning their first three-point haul of the fledgling Super League season.
Watch LIVE GREEK TV including full GREEK SPORTS coverage with Go Greek TV!
Goals from former Olympiacos winger Giannis Fetfatzidis, Fran Velez and Nicolas Diguiny - both of which were also set up by the excellent Fetfatzidis - and a Brown Ideye strike saw Aris complete a resounding victory over Giorgos Donis’ youthful side.
The result means Aris move on to four points from three games, while Panathaikos are stuck on one point after what has been a difficult start to the campaign for the cash-strapped Athens giants.
THE MATCH
Aris headed into this match looking to keep their momentum going, and it showed in the early stages as the Thessaloniki club sought to attack Panathinaikos at every opportunity, committing players forward and pressing high up the pitch.
Unsurprisingly, with the backing of their passionate and extremely vociferous supporters, Aris dominated the early possession and there was no shock when they finally opened the scoring after 20 minutes.
And it had to be former Olympiacos man Fetfatzidis. The diminutive forward took advantage of some nervy play by the PAO backline, stealing in to intercept a very poor pass across his own penalty area by Gayas Zahid.
After collecting the ball, Fetfatzidis saw his first shot blocked, but he met the rebound with a header to score and put Aris deservedly ahead.
It was almost 2-0 just four minutes later when Brown Ideye managed to get behind his marker Achilleas Pougouras, but the Nigerian forward’s effort flashed inches wide of the left post.
There was very little for Panathinaikos fans to cheer until 37 minutes when Giannis Bouzoukis had a couple of efforts on goal. The Greece Under-21 international forward’s first came from a free-kick and was fisted to safety by Julian Cuesta, while his second shot a minute later took a deflection and looped into the arms of the Aris keeper.
Apart from that it was all Aris and the hosts doubled their advantage three minutes before half-time.
Velez was sent rampaging through on goal from Fetfatzidis’ defence-splitting pass, and the Spaniard showed great composure to beat Greens keeper Dioudis, who did get a hand to the ball but couldn’t keep it out.
After half-time Panathinaikos tried to come out with all guns blazing but the Greens’ Italian striker Federico Macheda had a dangerous cross well blocked by Cuesta.
After that the home side began to take control of proceedings again and some poor defending from the visitors allowed Diguiny to make it 3-0 after 54 minutes and put the game beyond Panathinaikos’ reach.
The French striker had the simplest of tasks to slot the ball home from an unmarked position after being teed up perfectly by Fetfatzidis, with Greens defender Matias Johansson unable to cut out the cross.
At that point Panathinaikos looked like they were ready to collapse, and so it proved with Ideye getting in on the scoring after 64 minutes.
Another former Olympiacos connection, the 30-year-old striker produced a devastatingly clinical finish after latching on to a pass from Diguiny, who had broke clear on a fast counter attack down the right.
Juan Jose Perea, who replaced Emmanuel Insua after 69 minutes, thought he had pulled a goal back for Panathinaikos six minutes from the end of normal time, but the strike was ruled out after a VAR review for a foul committed by Macheda.
STARTING LINEUPS
Aris: 23 Cuesta (Gk), 69 Korhut, 92 Rose, 44 Velez, 21 Sundgren, 26 Matilla, 88 Sasha, 16 Gama, 7 Diguiny, 28 Fetfatzidis, 11 Ideye,
Panathinaikos: 1 Dioudis (Gk), 3 Insua, 44 Pougouras, 4 Kolovetsios, 2 Johansson, 8 Donis, 11 Chatzigiovanis, 10 Zahid, 24 Mavrommatis, 9 Macheda, 18 Bouzoukis
HIGHLIGHTS
