Olympiacos primed for playoffs after Panetolikos win
 

SUPER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 26

Giorgos Masouras and Andreas Bouchalakis were on target as Olympiacos ended the Super League regular season on Sunday with a hard-earned 2-0 win over Panetolikos at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus.

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Masouras headed home from a precise Mathieu Valbuena cross on the hour mark, and Bouchalakis fired home in added time to wrap up the three points for Pedro Martins’ Thrylos side, who ended the season at the top of the table with an emphatic seven-point lead over second-placed PAOK, who could only draw at Xanthi.

That means that the Piraeus club will start the playoffs, which kick off next weekend, as firm favorites to claim their first league title since the 2016/17 season, while Panetolikos, on the other hand, face a tough battle for their top flight credentials in the end of season playouts.

THE MATCH

Olympiacos came into this match on the back of their historic win over Arsenal at the Emirates in London which sent them into the Round of 16 of the Europa League, but the expected party atmosphere was a bit flat with swathes of empty seats around the stadium.

While the Erythrolefki have not wrapped up the league title, last week was by far the best one of the season for the club beginning with a derby win at PAOK and continuing with the late, dramatic elimination of Arsenal on Thursday evening.

Martins’ players were looking for a victory against Panetolikos, who are second from the bottom, in the final match of the regular season in order to maintain at least their five-point lead over PAOK as they prepare to enter the playoffs.

Panetolikos had clearly come to try and get men behind the ball in numbers and contain Olympiacos, who were in no hurry to get forward after a tough 10 days which has taken its toll on the squad.

As a result, the pace of the game was slow in the early stages, with clear scoring chances few and far between, aside from a fifth minute opening for the home side which ended with Ahmed Hassan heading in from close range. The ‘goal’, however, was correctly ruled out for offside.

Olympiacos had the ball in the net once again in the second minute of added time before the half-time break, when El Arabi scored from close-range following Hassan’s headed pass from a Lazar Randjelovic cross. However, the ‘goal’ was ruled out following a VAR review.

With the scores still 0-0 going into the second half, Olympiacos looked to step up a gear and try and get a goal to lock up the three points, and their efforts in the early part of the second half finally paid off after 60 minutes when Masouras scored.

The former Panionios forward met Valbuena’s inviting cross with a powerful header to finally get the breakthrough that the home side had threatened since the start of the second half. Panetolikos’ ‘keeper Jesus Fernandez got hand to the ball, but it wasn’t enough to keep the ball out and he should have done better.

It looked like that was all that Olympiacos would need to take another important step towards a first league title since 2017, but Bouchalakis latched on to another Valbuena assist to score a second for good measure as the Erythrolefki head into the payoffs with a significant advantage.

STARTING LINEUPS

Olympiacos: 1 Sa Jose (Gk), 76 Gaspar, 3 Semedo, 24 Ba, 14 Elabdellaoui, 5 Bouhalakis, 4 Camara, 19 Masouras, 11 El-arabi, 97 Randelovic, 99 Hassan

Panetolikos: 1 Knett (Gk), 23 Garcia, 91 Martial, 47 Malis, 92 Sjostedt, 10 Dalcio, 6 Tahar, 17 Mounier, 15 Alvarez, 11 Diaz, 25 Dauda

HIGHLIGHTS

by Graham Wood

Image Source: sportfm.gr

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