Meriah committing expensive mistakes

Yassine Meriah hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again this week, committing yet another decisive mistake for Olympiacos.

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The 26-year-old Tunisian defender is a very capable centre-back. In the summer, Meriah was one of the best defenders of the 2019 African Cup of Nations, helping Tunisia finish in a respective fourth place of the competition. His strong international form carried over to Olympiacos at the start of the season, but ever since he conceded two penalties in successive games against Tottenham and Panathinaikos, he has not been the same player at all. The situation culminated with Meriah making a dreadful error in the loss to Tottenham in England on Tuesday.

Let’s take a closer look at his major mistakes so far this season:

Olympiacos - Tottenham - 2-2 (UEFA Champions League matchday one)

Olympiacos initially made a great start against last year’s finalists. On the front foot, the Erythrolefki were creating the best opportunities at the Karaiskakis Stadium, but a sloppy mistake from Meriah turned the game on its head.

Beaten for skill by Harry Kane, Meriah needlessly dangled out his right leg, catching the English striker and conceding a cheap penalty which was converted. Yes, Olympiacos did recover to eventually clinch a 2-2 draw, but the result could have been different had the Greeks scored the opening goal.

Panathinaikos - Olympiacos - 1-1 (Super League matchday four)

In truth, Olympiacos were far from their best against their arch-rivals at the Olympic Stadium, but they would have emerged with a 1-0 victory had Meriah not conceded an avoidable penalty in the 88th minute.

Twisting to a more central position, Panathinaikos forward Federico Macheda drew a foul from a rather clumsy Meriah, and Yohan Mollo scored the ensuing penalty to deny Olympiacos a victory against the Prasini.

Red Star Belgrade - Olympiacos - 3-1 (UEFA Champions League matchday two)

The decisive moment of the Group B campaign.

10-man Olympiacos should have snatched all three points in Belgrade. With 85 minutes on the clock, Meriah was presented with a glorious opportunity to secure a potentially vital victory for Olympiacos in Serbia, but he contrived to somehow miss the target at point blank range. Red Star subsequently scored the winning goal just 60 seconds later to ruin Olympiacos’ hopes of challenging Bayern Munich and Tottenham for a place in the Round of 16.

Tottenham - Olympiacos - 4-2 (UEFA Champions League matchday six)

Unfortunately, we will never know what would have happened had Olympiacos clung on to their 2-0 lead until the half-time break, but there is no doubt that Dele Alli’s goal in stoppage time was absolutely crucial.

Inexplicably, Meriah failed to deal with a low, simple cross from the right wing, horribly mistiming his kick to gift Alli the easiest goal he will ever score. Gaining confidence from that goal, Tottenham came flying out of the blocks in the second half, scoring three unanswered markers to run out 4-2 winners and eliminate Olympiacos from the Champions League.

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: to10.gr

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