Showtime at Karaiskakis
SUPER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 8
AGONAsport previews the important Super League showdown between Olympiacos and AEK at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus.
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The stakes are certainly high. If they manage to beat AEK, Olympiacos will make a major statement of their intentions to win the Super League again, while a defeat for the Kitrinomavri will leave them trailing the Piraeus-based organisation by eight points already.
Olympiacos have struggled in the big derbies in the last couple of years. Since the start of the 2017/2018 Super League season, Olympiacos have emerged victorious in only four matches against either AEK, Panathinaikos or PAOK in the domestic championship, and two of those wins were awarded on paper after crowd violence interrupted play. Olympiacos drew 1-1 against Panathinaikos this season at the Olympic Stadium.
AEK are without a victory in a Super League derby since they defeated Panathinaikos 3-0 in April 2018. In the previous campaign, inconsistent AEK were far from their best in games against their biggest opponents, losing to Olympiacos and PAOK on the road while drawing the remaining derbies. The Enosis launched a comeback to salvage a thrilling 2-2 draw against PAOK at home in late September.
On the other hand, AEK have only lost one of their last six matches against Olympiacos across all competitions - a heavy 4-1 defeat in Piraeus in the second half of the 2018/2019 Super League season. Olympiacos scored four second-half goals to earn all three points after Ezequiel Ponce had initially given AEK the advantage.
There is no doubt that Olympiacos come into this battle as the clear favourites, especially given that this match is being held at their Karaiskakis Stadium which is so often a fortress. On Tuesday, Olympiacos did concede a disappointing 3-2 home defeat to Bayern Munich, but they gave their German visitors a test with a battling performance. Olympiacos have won six out of seven Super League games, only conceding a mere three goals in the process.
With Konstantinos Tsimikas, Omar Elabdellaoui, Giorgos Masouras and Daniel Podence all in great form, Olympiacos are extremely dangerous on the flanks and AEK will have to conjure up a master plan to somehow nullify their threat. For their part, AEK are also threatening on the wings, and they will feel that they can pick apart an Olympiacos defence which looked rather shaky against OFI last week. A lot will depend on the play of star Croatian forward Marko Livaja.
On matchday seven, Hillal Soudani netted a brace to secure a tense 2-1 triumph for Olympiacos at home to OFI, while AEK edged past Volos NFC at the Georgios Kamaras Stadium 3-2 with Petros Mantalos - twice - and Livaja scoring. Mantalos will miss this game in Piraeus after receiving a knock to his left leg in the win against Volos.
TEAM NEWS: OLYMPIACOS
The main absentee for Olympiacos is gifted French attacking midfielder Mathieu Valbuena, who suffered an injury when preparing for the match against OFI and continues to sit on the treatment table. Yassine Benzia is also unavailable because of an injury issue.
Soudani should return to the side after missing the duel against Bayern due to not being registered for Champions League action.
Possible line-up: Sa, Tsimikas, Meriah, Semedo, Elabdellaoui, Guilherme, Bouchalakis, Masouras, Soudani, Podence, El Arabi.
TEAM NEWS: AEK
Nikos Kostenoglou has a real selection headache. The loss of Mantalos is already bad enough, but Francisco Geraldes - who could have played in his place - has also been ruled out through injury. Goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas remains on the sidelines as he recovers from a broken finger, meaning Panagiotis Tsintotas will keep his place between the sticks. Niklas Hult (illness) and Viktor Klonaridis (injury) are also out.
Possible line-up: Tsintotas, Lopes, Vranjes, Chygrynskiy, Bakakis, Simoes, Galanopoulos, Almpanis, Livaja, Verde, Oliveira.
REFEREE: JORGE SOUSA (POR)
Sousa, 44, will take charge of proceedings at the Karaiskakis Stadium. In the summer, Sousa was the referee for the UEFA Europa League qualifier between AE Limassol and Aris in Cyprus (0-1), issuing the latter a penalty. Sousa has worked over seven matches in the 2019/2020 Liga NOS season.
In the past, the Portuguese referee has overseen the AEK - AC Milan (0-0), Panathinaikos - Athletic Bilbao (2-3) and Olympiacos - Hapoel Beer Sheva (0-0) matches in continental competition.
Assistant referees: Álvaro Mesquita (POR), Nuno Manso (POR)
Fourth official: Emmanouil Skoulas (GRE)
Video assistant referee: Vasilis Fotias (GRE)
Assistant video assistant referee: Vasilis Nikolakakis (GRE)
