Aris hoping to stop the rot against motivated Olympiacos
Aris hoping to stop the rot against motivated Olympiacos
GREEK SUPERLEAGUE - MATCHDAY 9
Aiming to end a run of three successive defeats in the Super League, Aris welcome Piraeus giants Olympiacos to the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium in Thessaloniki. AGONAsport previews the showdown.
Initially, newly promoted Aris made a brilliant start to the 2018/2019 campaign, however the Thessaloniki outfit have shown signs of cracking with three losses in a row to Panionios (0:1), PAOK (1:2) and AEK (0:4). In the Derby of Northern Greece, Aris were the better team for long spells, taking the lead through Mateo Garcia and seeing Younes Hamza miss a penalty. Nevertheless, two lapses in concentration allowed PAOK to score twice, before Aris endured a nightmare against AEK by dropping a crushing 0:4 defeat. Head coach Paco Herrera wasn’t impressed with the dismal showing in Athens and demands a reaction in the third consecutive Super League match against one of the title favourites.
It’s been a fascinating campaign for Olympiacos. With Pedro Martins in charge, the Thrylos have displayed promising signs, especially with the likes of Konstantinos Tsimikas, Mohamed Camara and Konstantinos Fortounis standing out with fantastic performances. However, they’ve struggled in the big matches, losing 0:1 at home to PAOK and letting a lead slip to AEK in a dramatic 1:1 draw. To their credit, Olympiacos have got back on track in the past three games, defeating Dudelange (2:0, UEFA Europa League), Apollon Smyrnis (1:0, Super League) and Panachaiki (2:0, Greek Cup) to taste that winning feeling again. Former OFI striker Dimitris Manos struck the winner against Apollon last week in the 90th minute.
In the 2016/2017 season, these two teams met in the Greek Cup Last 16, as Olympiacos eased past Aris 3:1 on aggregate (1:1 away, 2:0 home). Their most recent matches against each other in the Super League were in the 2013/2014 campaign when Olympiacos won 2:0 in Thessaloniki and 1:0 at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
Aris are currently located in seventh place with 12 points in eight matches. Olympiacos sit in fourth and can move to within four points of leaders PAOK with a victory.
TEAM NEWS: ARIS
Midweek, Paco Herrera made plenty of changes for the Greek Cup win against Aittitos Spata (2:1), but the main men will be back to play Olympiacos except the injured Fran Velez, Dimitris Konstantinidis, Babis Pavlidis and Giorgos Valerianos. Spaniard Alex Menendez returns to the squad.
Possible line-up: Cuesta, Tzanakakis, Mavraj, Delizisis, Menendez, Siopis, Basha, Garcia, Gama, Younes, Diguiny.
TEAM NEWS: OLYMPIACOS
Pedro Martins is happy to welcome Egyptian striker Ahmed Hassan back to the team. When he received an injury with the national team, it seemed that the 25-year old forward would be out for a prolonged period, but he’s made the trip to Thessaloniki. Portuguese goalkeeper Jose Sa has replaced Andreas Gianniotis as the starting shot stopper and should play. Roderick Miranda, Yaya Toure and Giannis Fetfatzidis were left at home.
Possible line-up: Sa, Elabdellaoui, Vukovic, Cisse, Koutris, Camara, Bouchalakis, Fortounis, Christodoulopoulos, Podence, Hassan.
REFEREE: ANASTASIOS SIDIROPOULOS (GRE)
So far, 39-year old Sidiropoulos has refereed six Super League matches this season, in addition to overseeing Aris’ 1:1 draw at PAOK in the Greek Cup group stages.
On the European stage, Sidiropoulos has been in charge of the Barcelona - PSV Eindhoven (4:0) and AS Roma - CSKA Moscow (3:0) games in the UEFA Champions League while also refereeing the Ukraine - Slovakia (1:0) fixture in the UEFA Nations League.
Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (GRE)
Assistant referees: Polychronis Kostaras (GRE), Ilias Alexeas (GRE)
WHERE TO WATCH
Watch the match on AGONAsport here, available worldwide except in Greece and Cyprus! Full TV listings for Australia, the USA, Canada and Greece can be found on this link.
by Shaun Nicolaides
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