Olympiacos: It was destroyed last year by Aris and tonight it plays with it for its survival in the championship race | Blog – Kostas Nikolakopoulos

K. Nikolakopoulos writes in his Gazzetta blog about tonight’s game between Olympiakos and Aris and not only that.

Instead of a preface: The transmission of GADA to the Prosecutor’s Office reads, word for word, “it cannot be excluded…”. The phrase “cannot be ruled out”, became by most sites a “given” involvement of PAE Olympiacos and the amateur in the case of the arrested…

Tonight’s game against Aris in Thessaloniki is of great importance for Olympiakos, since it essentially plays for its survival in the race for the championship, whether it concerns the claim of the title or a European ticket.

I do not know if I’m wrong, but I believe that the “red and white” will have luck in their goals, only if they beat Aris today and Lamia in Karaiskakis on Sunday. Otherwise, if they don’t get the six points against opponents 18 and 32 points respectively behind them, I can’t see how they will get nine points in the last three games with PAOK in Toumpa, AEK in Karaiskakis and Panathinaikos in Leoforos, with the these three teams that are above them in the standings and that are likely to play the championship in these games.

The meaning of the game can also be seen from the formation of the Olympiakos team, with the return of almost all the main players. Except that in football it is primarily how they play and not who plays that matters. Let me remind you that he went to Lamia with the starting team and lost 0-1, while the other day he went without the starting team and won 5-1…And with PAOK he ate four in Karaiskakis with the starting team and beat them 2-1 on Sunday without the essentials…

Mars does not seem to be at his best, however we can notice that in the play offs, firstly he has already lost three points from PAOK by beating them in Toumba and secondly he has narrowly lost in his two games in Harilaou against Panathinaikos and AEK, making in both very good first halves. The second and decisive goals in these two matches were scored one in stoppage time (an own goal in fact) and the other in 84^The minute, thin.

Let’s not forget, after all, that Olympiacos in last year’s championship was really destroyed by Aris, losing both of its matches in Charilaou with 1-2, but also losing two points in Karaiskakis (2-2). With these eight points, he would be a contender for the championship until the last matchday…

After that, last year’s patatrac, is true that this year Olympiacos was good in all three games for the championship against Aris, winning both in Karaiskakis with 4-1 and 3-0, and in Charilaou with 2-1, in a game in which he was winning 2-0 until stoppage time. With the same mindset and determination, the Mendiliber team must go into today’s game, since anything different will be disastrous for the rest of the game.

Is it is clear that Olympiacos must not lose points today and on Sunday, to be able to exhaust its chances for the title, but also for the European ticket – and the way things are going, it can go from first to fourth, so from champion, until outside Europe (if Aris wins the Cup). Realistically, as much as we don’t like it, the first has less chance and the fourth more, as it remains a constant 4^o in the standings, while theoretically he has the most difficult schedule, as immediately after his big games with Aston Villa (on May 2 and 9), he will be forced to play three derbies in one week as they will make the schedule: Sunday 12.5 with PAOK out, Wednesday 15.5 with AEK in and Sunday 19.5 with PAO out…

Yet but even so, under these circumstances, the question at the moment for Olympiakos is to go into that devil’s week and be alive in their goals – and to be alive they need to get six points in these two games with Aris and Lamia, but also, ideally, that AEK should not have won today against PAO in Philadelphia and on Sunday against PAOK in Toumba. In such a case, the Mendiliber team will have the opportunity to play all for all in the three “sticky” derbies.

Chances unfortunately he will not be on her side, but let’s remember that last year, ending the season with a caretaker coach (Anigo) and with many problems, Olympiacos in the last three matches had also given three derbies at the end, at least in 10 and not in seven days like now, and his results were 0-0 with AEK in Philadelphia, 1-0 with Panathinaikos in Karaiskakis and 1-0 with PAOK in Toumba, getting the passport to the Europa League in the last game, through which he has reach the semi-finals of the Conference League right now, lest we forget, eh?

Such as and if it has, it is worth it for Olympiacos to reach three derbies and be in the dance, thus taking the two three points with Aris and Lamia. Except that for it to happen there must be some conditions. For example, let’s not see again the frivolity that the team showed in important parts of the derby with PAOK in the second half. Then, in the 48th minute, Navarro had to pass to Podense, but he chose to shoot himself, mistimed. With Navarro and in 54′ having to turn the ball to Gelson and not doing it, angering Mendiliber on the bench in both cases. Like Horta in the 84th minute, he had to pass to Ese, Masoura and he also chose to shoot, mistimed.

But and defensively the “red and white” had bad moments, in fact they made a lot of mistakes, regardless of whether they cost anything. With these mistakes, first of all, they allowed PAOK to react after the 1-0. In the two minutes 31-32 he had finals from good positions, with Zelson in the second case losing the ball very easily. An even bigger mistake by Cicinho in the 43rd put Zifkovic in a shooting position, with Cicinho himself fortunately correcting it by turning back and blocking the PAOK player’s shot.

And to the end of the match, in the 78th minute, Koulierakis took a completely unmarked header from Orta, who had taken over and was simply looking at him, with Tzolakis being very lucky that the ball went wide. If at that point PAOK were down 2-1, with 15 minutes left to play, nobody knows how the game would end. Let me remind you that this is how PAOK also lost in Philadelphia the other day 0-2 against AEK and initially reducing the score, found an equalizer in the 89th minute. As he also found a goal in Karaiskakis in the 92′, in a phase in which Kini was left completely helpless by Masoura, who had been substituted in the 78′ in place of Zelson, precisely to give fresh legs to the team and not let the Kini alone from the right…

Masouras, by the way, in the 96th minute had a critical intervention defensively, turning back to the area of ​​Tzolakis, in a difficult moment for Olympiakos. the question, however, is one: did PAOK have to score and Olympiacos risk a humiliating 2-2 draw from 2-0 for the international hunter to do his job properly?

Irrelevant:

Without further comments on my part, as much as Varouhas, as well as Koutsiavtis, but also Finokaliotis, the three referees who comment on the disputed phases in the Greek championship, agreed, without any hesitation, that the Portuguese referee was right to whistle Koulierakis’ penalty on the Navarro at Olympiacos-PAOK on Sunday.

Today Slovenian Obrenovic will blow the whistle in Harilau. Oh the miracle, once again they have brought him back to Greece and with this referee, Aris had won against PAOK in Toumba… Pay attention, that Brenovic is a referee in the Champions League and the French Delaiond is a referee in the Europa League and the Conference League. So according to football logic, the Champions League referee had to whistle the big AEK-PAO derby, which can decide half the league, and the Conference League referee had to whistle Aris-Olympiakos. Correctly; Come on, however, when the EPO’s KED decided that the French should play the derby and the Slovenian the Aris-Olympiakos.

At all coincidentally, the Slovenian had recently played PAOK-Aris 0-1 and another French referee, Vatelier, had played Olympiacos-Aris 3-0 the other day… So, let a referee with whom Aris won play in Harilaou and don’t play French, as Olympiacos beat Aris with French.

by the way, why did Nova not show with lines the goal phase of AEK’s tie in Charilaou on Sunday with Aris? I’m not saying there was offside. I say that in a marginal phase a decisive goal was scored. Shouldn’t we see the phase with lines?

Photo of the day:

None times football is very ironic! On Thursday, Olympiacos got a huge qualification in the penalty shootout and three days later, playing a survival derby with PAOK, they lost a penalty shootout at 0-0!

The not Fenerbahcequeen of penalties this season (23 won!), on the one hand, she was eliminated from Europe on penalties by Olympiakos, and on the other hand, on Sunday she lost the three points to Sivasspor (2-2) away from home from a penalty in 94^The minute, thin! They are now four points behind Galatasaray in the title race and nobody in Turkey believes they can win the league in the last five games, with the away derby between them. With the coach of Fenerbahce, Kartal, listening from the train.

And it has taste that Kartal against Sivaspor started with the exact same line-up that played against Olympiakos in the 120-minute quarter-final. At the same time that Medilibar chose to make eight changes, in the 2-1 win over PAOK… With Vasko looking like he doesn’t understand anything when he decides on the lineup, the changes, etc. Let me remind you that he had made eight changes in the Olympiakos lineup and in the 2-1 over Panaitolikos, right after the 2-1 over Asteras Tripoli!

The Mediliber had four games in a row in the starting line-up of attacking midfielder Jovetic, but in the match in Istanbul he made a change at half-time with Ibora. And now with PAOK, he didn’t play the Serb for a single minute, playing the Spaniard for the entire 90 minutes.

And finally one