Marko Scepovic scored the only goal in our second leg of the greek cup. The win makes it 5-0 on aggregate and see us advance to the next stage. The game itself was a bit crappy and very low key from us.
I guess we'd already won the tie and barring some sort of catastrophic breakdown we were always going to get through. Megyeri played well out of the team but there is precious little else to say.
Still we won and I guess thats all that needs saying. Theres a few pictures underneath this text from the match.
Asteras Tripolis 0-1 Olympiacos
79' Scepovic
Olympiacos : Megyeri, Salino, Papadopoulos, Papazoglou, Bong, N'Dinga, Pele, Machado (65' Weiss), Fuster, Dominguez (57' Ibagaza), Mitroglou (76 'Scepovic).
In the last day or so, the Turks kicked out Rafik Djebbour and so he has returned to the club. Djebbour is probably oblivious to what he has done when he says that he wouldn't mind playing for us again. Oh, thats very fucking nice of you Rafik!. Tell you what, how about NO - FUCK OFF YOU MERCENARY BASTARD!!
Djebbour did his damndest to leave the club in the summer, publically courted Poutanas tis Vorra and then claimed he was out of contract and could move anywhere he liked. Now his season is down the shitter and he couldn't score three goals in the Turkish league he wants to come back. No thanks, send the prick off to Ukbekistan or somewhere. See how he likes it then - the ungrateful opportunistic little shite.
We had our matchday 6 tie tonight with us playing Asteras Tripolis at home. Its been a couple of weeks since my last report due to holidays but I'm back and writing again. This is our last superleague game before we take a weeks break for international duties and we really want to grab a win here to make it 6 victories from 6 games so far.
Onto the game though and it was Tripolis doing the majority of the attacking in the opening minutes although their long ball methods was easily ran out of play. We also helped break up their momentum with smart counter attacks whenever possible. After the first ten minutes we were getting more possession of the ball and starting to apply some pressure on the Asteras goalmouth albeit without any success.
We were still fighting for control of the game after the first fifteen minutes and our efforts on goal were being matched by Tripolis at the other end of the pitch. Our best chance of the game so far coming in the 20th minute from a free kick just in front of the box which required the goalkeeper to intervene and push the ball over the net. A following opportunity was cleared off the Tripolis line so it looked like, slowly but surely, we were getting closer to goal.
We continued with the pressure on the Tripolis goalmouth throughout the half but were having trouble in breaking through their defensive line. Our best chances were still coming from dead ball situations and not open play. On the wings, Machado had not been performing well and Ibagaza was being closed down in the centre too often so the playmakers were being reduced to the two defensive midfielders and Abdoun (who was trying to dribble all too often).
However two minutes before the break we got the goal we had been waiting for. An indirect free kick gave us the chance to make a shot on goal and up came Holebas for the shot. He absolutely spanked the ball and shot it into the goal like a bullet to give us the lead at halftime. That shot has to be the goal of the week if not the month - an total cracker of a shot!
Early in the second half we made two changes to the lineup to allow for tactical changes and a couple of slight knocks that the players had picked up. The game however had reverted to what was seen for long stretches of the first half - a lot of possession and runs up the field but very little final chances in the Tripolis area. Asteras for their part were getting a little more adventurous as they needed to equalise but we were coping with their occasional forays into our half of the pitch.
During the second half of the match, Asteras started to control the possession more whilst we changed to counter attacking once again but we were still coping with closing down their attacks. The defensive style didn't meet with the crowds approval though and they voiced their discontent. Especially as we weren't showing any sort of domination on the field at the minute.
We had a couple of chances on goal in the final 15 minutes of the match but so did Tripolis with a header ricocheting off the post in the 82nd minute. The opposition had another direct chance on the 85th minute but luckily Carroll deflected the ball off his feet with a diving save. We managed to hold onto the lead for the rest of the game and the match finished after four minutes of extra time. The crowd rightly booed the performance (despite the win) at the final whistle.
Olympiakos 1-0 Asteras Tripolis
43' Holebas
Olympiakos : Carroll, Modesto, Contreras, Manolas, Holebas (50' Torosidis), Maniatis, Siovas, Ibagaza (50' Fuster), Machado, Abdoun, Djebbour (83' Mitroglou)
After the mornings training session, Leonardo Jardim announced the 19 players selected for tomorrows match. The players making the list are :-
Goalkeepers (2)
Carroll, Megyeri
Defenders (5)
Siovas, Holebas, Manolas, Torosidis, Contreras
Midfielders (9)
Greco, Tatos, Ibagasa, Fuster, Modesto, Maniatis, Fetfatzidis, Abdoun, Machado
Attackers (3)
Mitroglou, Pantelic, Djebbour
Diakite, Diogo and Vlachodimos were not included whilst Papazoglou, Fejsa and Zaradoukas are not fit enough to take part in the game.