Lazaros strikes again to spearhead Olympiacos win
GREEK SUPERLEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1
| Olympiacos | 1 - 0 | Levadiakos |
|---|---|---|
| Christodoulopoulos 62' |
Lazaros Christodoulopoulos continued his electric start to the 2018/19 season with a superb free-kick to claim all three points for Olympiacos in their season-opening 1-0 win over Levadiakos at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium on Sunday.
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The former AEK forward, who lead the Kitrinomavri to SuperLeague title success last season, curled in a trademark set-piece just after the hour mark as the Thrylos followed up last week’s Europa League win over Burnley with maximum points in their first league match.
Pedro Martins’ side should have won by a bigger margin, but Kostas Fortounis missed a first-half penalty, while Egyptian striker Kouka hit the bar in the second half and Miguel Angelo Guerrero was denied by Levadiakos goalkeeper Devis Epassy when clean through on goal.
But Martins will still be delighted with the result, as well as the second half performance from his players, particularly Lazaros, whose vital goals in this summer’s Europa League qualifying campaign have helped kick-start the Piraeus club’s season.
For Levadiakos, it looked like Akis Mantzios’ team had come simply to park the bus - which they did to good effect for long spells in this match. However, the Livadeia club know that if they want to repeat last season’s decent showing of a 10th-place finish, they will have do do much better than they did here.
Olympiacos’ attention now switches fully to next week’s Europa League playoff second leg against Burnley in England, where the Thrylos will look to defend a 3-1 advantage to take their place in the group stage draw.
