Late Manos strike saves Olympiacos blushes against Apollon
GREEK SUPERLEAGUE - MATCHDAY 8
| Olympiacos | 1 - 0 | Apollon Smyrnis |
|---|---|---|
| Manos 90' |
Olympiacos produced another uninspiring SuperLeague performance on Monday as the Piraeus giants needed a late strike from Dimitris Manos to edge out bottom club Apollon Smyrnis 1-0 at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium.
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The match looked to be heading for what would have been a poor goalless draw as the final whistle approached, but in the last minute of normal time, Manos showed great composure to control a deflected shot by Lazaros, swivel and fire past Apollon goalkeeper Huanderson.
To their credit, Apollon put in a battling performance as they parked the bus effectively for 89 minutes as they looked to grind out a draw against the Erythrolefki, who struggled to find a way through.
The outcome is just what Pedro Martins’ men needed to keep the momentum going after their midweek 2-0 away win against Dudelange in the Europa League. The win move Olympiacos level on 16 points with third-placed AEK.
THE MATCH
Having not won in their previous three games and losing 1-0 to lowly OFI Crete last time out, nothing less than the three points was expected in Piraeus from this Matchday 8 encounter.
But a poor first half in which their was little evidence of urgency in Olympiacos’ play yielded just one significant opening for the home side after 26 minutes when Lazaros sent a side-footed effort wide.
The hosts managed to up their tempo and overall play in the second half, but each time they came forward Apollon managed to get bodies in the way and stop the Red and Whites from scoring.
Giannis Fetfatzidis missed a golden opportunity to break the deadlock on the hour mark when he was teed up perfectly by Israeli midfielder Bibras Natcho, with the little forward’s shot flashing past the post when it seemed a goal was certain.
Apollon were protesting at the officials in the 83rd minute when Spanish defender Fonsi was sent clean through on goal only to be pulled back for offside, which replays showed was a woeful error on the part of the assistant referee.
The visitors then came close to scoring four minutes from full-time when Panagiotis Triadis fired a shot in on goal, but his effort was saved well by Olympiacos’ Portuguese goalkeeper Jose Sa.
But, just as it seemed the match was then heading for a draw, Lazaros’ surge into the box ended with his shot ricocheting fortuiitously into the path of Manos, who finished clinically to break Apollon hearts and enable Martins to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
