Greek football has seen it all
AGONAsport’s Olympiacos contributor, Theo Bouras, talks about Olympiacos’ derby draw against AEK and also comments on the recent off-the-field developments in Greek football.
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It’s hard to look at these past ten days in Greek football and not laugh; it’s even harder to look back and not cry. We have seen standings changes, court rulings, VAR “accidents,” laws been altered, and that’s just scratching the surface.
A Fight to the Finish
Olympiacos had been on a roll to start the 2020 calendar year. After victories over Panathinaikos, Lamia, Aris Thessaloniki, and OFI Crete, the Legend travelled to the OAKA Spyros Louis Stadium for a derby showdown with rivals AEK Athens. Pedro Martins sent a 4-3-3 formation to the pitch, and the team controlled the tempo of the game but were unable to score.
With the on-going transfer of Daniel Podence to the Wolverhampton Wanderers in England, Olympiacos are losing a valuable offensive asset. Podence was never a clinical finisher, but his superior speed and his world-class ability to dribble always created havoc for the opposing defenses. The team is set to receive between 25 and 30 million euros for the transfer – a Greek record and a testament to the depth of Olympiacos’ scouting and development system.
When looking back at the past 25 years of dominance by Olympiacos, you need to look no further than the way other teams have valued their players. Nery Castillo, Kostas Manolas, Andreas Samaris, Kostas Mitroglou, Luka Milivojevic, Brown Ideye, and Panagiotis Retsos have all been sold for more than ten million euros. Podence will soon be added to that incredible list, a motto used by some of the biggest clubs in all of Europe.
In Podence’s place this past Sunday, Giorgos Masouras had his typical hard-working game. The Greek winger played hard and back-checked to help Omar Elabdellaoui when it was needed. The unfortunate part of Masouras’ game is that he is unable to be that offensive threat that Podence was.
The 4-3-3 formation had Mady Camara, Andreas Bouchalakis, and Guilherme in the midfield, and it paid enormous dividends for coach Pedro Martins early on. The Reds controlled play and dominated possession while never really being threatened by the home side. It has to be mentioned that Bouchalakis was the best player on the pitch and is discreetly having an excellent season. The Greek midfielder won challenges in the middle of the park, opened up the game in the wings with his passing, and made timely runs.
Mathieu Valbuena started in the left attacking midfield role but often found himself playing in the back of Youssef El Arabi as a central attacking midfielder. This created a void on the left side attack as hardly any offense was generated from the left side.
For a 4-3-3 to efficiently work, Olympiacos would have needed attacking solutions from their wing-backs, Kostas Tsimikas and Omar Elabdellaoui. Unfortunately for the Erythrolefki, both backs were on point in their defensive duties but did very little to help in the offensive part of the game.
Even with Ruben Semedo’s irresponsible suspension, Pape Abou Cisse and Ousseynou Ba did a fantastic job in the central part of Olympiacos’ defense. Cisse has hardly played since the beginning of the season, due to some heart and pulmonary issues, but it looks like he is match fit. The 24-year-old Ba is improving every time he is on the pitch and continues to gain the trust of Martins. The team manager seemed hesitant in the second half to take any further risks.
AEK, for their part, looked in disarray and were barely able to string two straight passes together. The Kitrinomavri were continually playing the long ball to forward Nelson Oliveira, who was constantly getting beaten in the air by Ba and Cisse. AEK boss, Massimo Carrera, seemed all too pleased with the draw, and Martins should have smelled blood. Instead, the Portuguese coach made two late substitutions, and both proved to be too little, too late.
The 44-time Greek champions’ road struggles this season could prove costly for their quest to win the Greek Championship for the first time since 2017.
Not even in Hollywood
As much as I hate speaking about officiating and conspiracies, you can’t help but notice the big elephant in the room. Even the biggest anti-Olympiacos supporter will agree that the team is going up against an entire system this year. PAOK have continued to benefit from officiating decisions, VAR errors, and now law changes.
In their game against AEK, the Dikefalos tou Vorra were awarded a penalty when their forward Karol Swiderski had clearly committed an offensive foul before the penalty infraction.
In their game against Asteras Tripoli and while they were leading 1-0, PAOK committed a clear penalty in the 40th minute when Douglas Augusto bodychecked the Asteras player in the box – no penalty was given.
In their game against Lamia, PAOK scored a borderline offside goal and when the match referee wanted to verify the VAR to see the legitimacy of the goal, the VAR suddenly stopped working.
In their game against Volos, the PAOK owned player, Marios Taousis, who is on loan to Volos committed a penalty and PAOK won the game 1-0.
While the Committee of Professional Sport found PAOK and Xanthi guilty of co-ownership and suggested that they be relegated based on the current law, the Greek government announced on Tuesday that the laws would be changing and that PAOK (and Xanthi) might face a point deduction penalty and a fine. Their reasoning being that historic teams can’t be relegated for matters like these.
PAOK went on full attack mode on Monday evening. A flurry of fans visited the New Democracy offices in Thessaloniki with intimidations. Team Vice-President, Makis Gagatsis, went on national television threatening Deputy Minister of Sport, Lefteris Avgenakis, with the comment: “The next time Avgenakis visits Thessaloniki, he better have security guards and the police with him.”
From the looks of it, the threats worked. While other historic teams like AEK, Iraklis Thessaloniki, Aris Thessaloniki, and PAS Giannina have been relegated, the same rules don’t seem to apply for PAOK FC.
In a year where everyone and everything seems hell-bent to stop them, Olympiacos are proving that the weight of this jersey is heavy and that if they do ultimately win the Super League in 2020, it will be the sweetest victory of them all.
