Marseille punished AEK on the counterattack

The 2-0 defeat by Marseille was experienced by AEK at the OPAP Arena, as part of the 4th matchday of its 2nd group Europa League. Thus, the Greek team remains in third place in the group with 4 points, behind Marseille (8) and Brighton (7) which they must beat next matchday (30/11) at the same stadium to hope for qualification . The goals were scored by Beba at 25′ and Sar at 90+3′.

With many changes to the starting line-up Almeida relied so heavily on experience for the first time. The match developed into a carbon match with the Marseille match, with the French dominating and taking a fair lead in the first half and the Union bringing out much more energy at the start of the second. Marseille missed an incredible opportunity with Vitinia, who “kicked the air” from the assist of Etiague and with the entire AEK defense neutralized in the 17th minute. In the 25th minute, from a corner by Klos, Beba rose higher than everyone else and sent the ball into the net for 0-1.

AEK almost conceded another goal in an identical phase, when in the 33rd minute Lotti took the corner and Beba headed in again, but Athanasiadis saved. Overall, Marseille had no problem setting the pace and maintaining the lead. All this until the start of the second 45 minutes. AEK appeared transformed and “crushed” the French.

He should have equalized in the 51st minute with Levia Garcia’s header from Amrabad’s cross, but the 25-year-old striker “marked” Lopes, who a few minutes later (54th minute) had a decisive influence on Gacinovic’s shot from inside the area.

In the 63′, Athanasiadis saved a certain goal with an instinctive save in the attempt of Bitinia, keeping AEK in the game. At that point Almeida made his famous triple corrective move, throwing all his offensive weapons into play: and Zuber and Ponce and Araujo. The cohesion and momentum that the home team had shown was lost and Marseille managed to “freeze” the pace of the game. In the 80′, Vitinia tried to “finish” the match, but the diagonal shot he attempted hit the post.

The Union could still hope. He began to threaten again, unorthodoxly with Eliasson’s crosses from the right and Gattuso “responded” with changes aimed at “shielding” the defense against attacks… from the air. In the exhalation the champion won successive corners and threatened with headers and created… panic in the French area. In the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Veretou stole the ball, got in front of Athanasiadis and “gifted” the goal to Ismaila Sar who made the final 0-2.

The compositions:

AEK (Matias Almeida): Athanasiadis, Sidibe, Mukudi, Vida, Hadjisafi, Simanski (81′ Galanopoulos), Pineda (63′ Araujo), Gatsinovic (63′ Chuber), Amrabad (76′ Eliasson), Mandalos, Garcia (63′ Ponce)

Marseille (Gennaro Gattuso): Pau Lopez, Clos (90+5′ Zigo), Beba, Balerdi, Lodi, Kodogbia, Harit (90+5′ Nadir), Verretou, Diage (86′ Mouriho), Correa (60′ Sarr), Vitinia