Olympiacos cruise past Aris
Olympiacos cruise past Aris
SUPER LEAGUE PLAYOFFS - MATCHDAY 2
Olympiacos made light work of Aris on Sunday, beating the Thessaloniki club 3-1 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus to edge ever closer to their 45th Super League title.
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A stellar display from Mady Camara, who scored twice and set up another for Giorgos Masouras, guided Pedro Martins’ side to a handsome win for the home side, who once again showed a killer touch at the right time having been second best in the early stages of the game.
Brown Ideye pulled a goal back for Aris shortly after the hour mark, but Olympiacos never looked in danger of letting the match slip, and they could even afford a missed penalty late on when substitute Kostas Fortounis saw his effort saved by Julian Cuesta.
As a result of the win, the Erythrolefki have now moved 18 points clear of AEK at the top of the Super League Play Offs standings after two rounds, with eight matches still to play.
THE MATCH
Heading into this Matchday 2 fixture, Olympiacos were already flying high after the vital North vs. South derby win over PAOK last weekend. Youssef El-Arabi’s goal sealed a massive win for the Erythrolefki in that game for the champions-elect.
Meanwhile, Aris arrived in Athens also on the back of scooping up a valuable three-point haul last time out. Bruno Gama’s brace led the charge in a comeback win over OFI Crete which saw the Thessaloniki club take over sole possession of fifth place and primed to try and spring a surprise against Olympiacos.
And an inauspicious start from the home side with Aris on top in the early stages suggested that a shock could be on the cards. The solidity and fluid play that we saw from the home side in their previous match was nowhere to be seen in the opening 15 minutes or so.
Gama missed a glorious chance after just eight minutes for Aris, and the Thessaloniki side threatened again through former Thrylos midfielder Giannis Fetfatzidis, who fired a shot narrowly wide in the 17th minute.
After the cooling break on the 20-minute mark, Olympiacos finally started to string some passes together and they went in front with their first chance seven minutes later.
The move for the goal started with a poor mistake by Aris defender Giorgos Delizisis, who was robbed far too easily by Camara. The ball was off-loaded to Mathieu Valbuena, who surged towards goal. The Frenchmen was stopped by Delizisis, but play continued and Camara picked up possession and managed to beat Cuesta in the Aris goal.
The goal seemed to come as a huge shock for the visitors, who were all over the place and contrived to concede a second goal just a minute later and the game was over as a contest at that point.
Camara was again the man on target. The Guinean midfielder benefitted from determined work by El Arabi, who won possession in midfield almost straight from the restart following the first goal and fed his teammate to score.
The icing was put on the proverbial cake in the 38th minute as Camara capped a fine individual performance by laying on an assist for Giorgos Masouras to score with a tap-in to make it 3-0 and send the Thrylos out of sight.
Aris had to regroup at half-time and they came out after the interval looking determined to try and right the wrongs of the opening 45 minutes. After a bright start, the visitors finally opened up the home defence in the 57th minute, but Daniel Larsson’s shot cannoned off the woodwork with home ‘keeper Jose Sa beaten.
That was a sign of things to come, however, with Aris making a breakthrough that their play deserved in the 64th minute to make it 3-1. Ideye was the man on target, the former Olympiacos man scoring from close range following a cross from substitute Daniel Mancini which deflected off Olympiacos defender Papa Abou Cisse and fell invitingly for the visitors’ Nigerian frontman.
Another cooling break and a flurry of substitutions seemed to somewhat disrupt the flow of the game, and neither side looked like they would add to the scoreline as the match entered its final 15 minutes.
Then with 11 minutes left, Olympiacos were awarded a penalty after a VAR review showed that Aris defender Lindsay Rose had fouled Fortounis. Fortounis dusted himself down to take the spot-kick himself, but he was denied by Cuesta, who guessed correctly and parried the ball to safety.
There was a final chance for Aris to make it 3-2 in the dying seconds, but Ideye somehow missed the target after Mancini had robbed Jose Sa.
And that was the last real goalmouth action of the match as the home side held on for another vital three-point haul to move ever closer to their first trophy win in three years.
STARTING LINEUPS
Olympiacos: 1 Sa (Gk), 21 Tsimikas, 66 Cisse, 24 Ba, 14 Elabdellaoui, 5 Bouhalakis, 8 Guilherme, 4 Camara, 28 Valbuena, 11 El-Arabi, 19 Masouras
Aris: 23 Cuesta (Gk), 69 Korhut, 44 Velez, 5 Delizisis, 92 Rose, 26 Matilla, 88 Sasha, 16 Gama, 10 Larsson, 28 Fetfatzidis, 11 Ideye
by Graham Wood
Image Source: sport-fm.gr
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