Olympiakos will present our four recent acquisitions to the media this afternoon. Nelson Valdez, Hernan Perez, Ivan Marcano and Pele will talk about their move and answer a quesiton and answer session.

Some comments so far :-

Marcano: I'd like to thank the club and the fans. I want this season to be even better than previous. Thank you again everyone.

Perez: I'm very pleased that I came to Olympiakos. I hope to do the best I can. Thank you for the confidence you have shown me.

Marcano: I have been on loan for six months, but I have expectations to do perform well and remain in Olympiakos.

Valdez: It is an opportunity to play again in the Champions League, which is the dream of every player. I have many expectations and look forward to play against Manchester United.

Perez: I have taken part in the Champions League with Villareal. I am already looking forward to the matches with Manchester United.


The club also announced the signing of Roberto on a 4 year deal. The transfer is worth €6m but it is a very good price for a top class goalkeeper.

Our game in Komotini, Thrace was postponed by a day to allow the snow to be cleared. As for the match itself, it was surprisingly open. There was plenty of tempo during the first half but very few chances on goal - perhaps one real chance on goal for both sides. The amount of water held within the pitch wasn't helping us and the ball itself was moving very sluggishly. The half ended 0-0 and it was apparent that a quick rethink of tactics would be needed at halftime.
After about 15 minutes of the second half, it was apparent that a tactical change was needed and so we brought on Mitroglou as a second striker and sacrificed Greco to the bench.
The change didn't make any change to the scoreline in the short term and we still struggled getting any proper chances away against the packed Thracian defence. Eventually we got the goal with a 86th minute header from Contreras which gave us the victory today.
Not the best game but we had enough control of the match to give us the victory.

Panthrakikos 0-1 Olympiakos
86' Contreras

Olympiakos : Megyeri, Diakite, Manolas, Contreras, Holebas, Modesto (75' Fejsa), Maniatis, Greco (57' Greco), Machado, Abdoun, Djebbour

A final announcement from the weekend. Olympiakos FC have announced that our Captain, Vasilis Torosidis, will not be renewing his contract with the club. After six years with the club, he has decided to move abroad to continue his career overseas.

Following on from some absolutely terrible performances, Leonardo Jardim was dismissed in a simple statement from the club earlier this afternoon. The clubs limited faith had been shaken recently with some of the playing performances and the style and the fans as well were not impressed with the quality of play. The statement simply read :-

"Olympiakos FC announces the termination of coach Leonardo Jardim's contract and thanks him for all his previous work. In tomorrows match against PAS Giannena, Antonis Nikopolidis will take charge of the team."

Current names being mentioned for the vacant position are Michel (ex-Sevilla) and Jose Luis Oltra (ex-Deportivo).

Todays match against Veroia was our first of the new year and it would be interesting to see how we fared after a scrappy end to 2012.

The start of the game was as encouraging as any games we have seen. We took control of the match early on and simply peppered their goal with as many shots as we could. Veroia by contrast sat back with 8 or 9 men and simply defended deep and in numbers.
We continued to get forward throughout most of the first half with Djebbour (on the left wing) and Mitroglou making most of the chances with the midfield being pressured to keep control of the ball. Veroia were fighting for possession and after the decent opening quarter hour we had started to lack the distribution needed to feed the two forwards (Machado going missing once again).
The Veroia packed defence held out until halftime with a 0-0 scoreline. Not a bad half to start but we tailed off and got complacent especially with regards to the passing. The crowd rightly booed its discontent at the halftime whistle.

The restart saw the debut of Pino in place of Greco and it was our first look at our new winger. As for the game, we finally managed to score the opening goal in the 54th minute after a cross from the left was headed into the net by Mitroglou (assist Pino). After the goal, we started to play more confidently and once again began to pepper the Veroia goalmouth with shots.
We played really well for five minutes after the goal but afterwards slumped down to our complacent style of play. We were still controlling the game largely but we didn't look anything like as energetic as we did following the goal.
We grabbed a second goal of the game with a pretty soft penalty which will help the scoreline disguise the fact that we haven't played that well overall. Still, I'm not complaining about a free gift from the referee.

The game wasn't finished though and Pantelic whacked in a header from close range after another cross from Pino (his second assist of the game). The game ended at 3-0 and at least we've had a win. It may not have been pretty for long stretches of the game but at least we won.

Olympiakos 3-0 Veroia
54' Mitroglou
86' Djebbour
90+1' Pantelic

Olympiakos : Carroll, Torosidis, Manolas, Contreras, Holebas, Machado (87' Pantelic), Modesto, Maniatis, Greco (46' Pino), Djebbour, Mitroglou (78' Fetfatzidis).

Olympiakos continued their march onwards by defeating Ilysiakos by 113 to 85 points yesterday in our SEF arena. This was the tenth match of the A1 league season and only a few days before we meet Kavala for the cup semifinal.
Printezis was the best scorer of the match followed by Papanikolaou and Gecevicius.
The overall scores and scorers are as follows (pictures after) :-

Olympiakos 113-75 Ilysiakos
1st Quarter : Olympiakos 21-18 Ilysiakos
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 55-43 Ilysiakos
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 82-58 Ilysiakos
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 113-75 Ilysiakos

Olympiakos : Hines 9, Low, Spanoulis 2, Sloukas 13, Mavroeidis 7, Powell 14, Gecevicius 17, Printezis 24, Papanikolaou 18, Mantzaris, Georgakis 5, Katsevelis 4

We played Panionios in Nea Smyrni during our Matchday 15 tie and went on to win the game by a 1-2 scoreline.

Despite a very cagey opening from our team, we soon recovered and went on the offensive. The first goal was scored by Panionios, against the run of play, by Christos Aravidis after some shit defending allowed him to shoot on goal. We kept the pressure up though and were rewarded with our efforts by an equalising goal some five minutes later. Here Spyropoulos totally miskicked his clearance and pushed the ball in entirely the wrong direction and into the net!! We came close to taking the lead right at the death of the first half but both Djebbour and Modesto fluffed their chances.

We continued to pressurise in the second half and the addition of Mitroglou gave us more of an offensive edge. Mitroglou had two direct chances on goal bounce off the goalpost though and we had real trouble in getting the final ball into the box to one of our players. Panionios also had a couple of chances of their own on goal but largely the game was in our favour. Eventually we got the second goal in the 82nd minute thanks to a Rafik Djebbour knock-in and we looked set to win the game when Panionios were reduced to 10 men shortly afterwards.
The win sees us climb to 11 points clear at the top of the table and ready for the winter break.

Panionios 1-2 Olympiakos
26' Aravidis
31' Spyripoulos (og)
82' Djebbour

Olympiakos : Carroll, Maniatis, Manolas, Contreras, Holebas, Greco (46' Mitroglou), Modesto, Ibagaza, Machado (67' Fuster), Abdoun (90' Papazoglou), Djebbour

Tonights match came from the half-filled Vazelo bourdello where we faced the whores of Greece and perpetual whipping boys of Europe, Panathinaikos.
Our green brothers, fresh from another outstanding campaign which has seen them eliminated from Europe before Christmas (and saw such notable results such as a 3-0 thrashing by Maribor) needed a win against us to stop their pouting fans from crying further, whilst a win for us would see us virtually guaranteed the title.

The early part of the game was not too pretty from our view and we ended up conceding a cheap goal in the seventeenth minute before a close range equaliser four minutes later courtesy of Djebbour silenced the crowd. We should have killed the game off with the chances we had in the first half but we had to settle for taking the lead a little later than we wanted with a second goal from Djebbour in the 34th minute. Despite our advantage we could still afford to play a lot better in the game and improve for the second half, however we led at half time through a single goal.

The second half was probably even worse for us - our play was poor and we were not as aggressive as previous games. The result of this was that we were pushed onto the defensive and tended to surrender possession of the ball - Poutanas Gios took advantage of this to flop all over the pitch under the slightest contact. Some atrocious defending on our part (again) allowed them to equalise in the 67th minute and we were then chasing the winner.

Fuster had two direct chances on goal but the poor sod couldn't even score in a brothel this season and so our few chances came and went. We were also getting caught offside too often and our overall play was just sloppy - only Djebbour and Abdoun seemed to be dragging the team forward. Three fairly poor substitutions later and the game finally finished with a 2-2 scoreline. Very disappointing to not win the game but the performance was fucking dreadful.

Olympiakos 2-2 Poutanas Gios
17' Mavrias
21' Djebbour
34' Djebbour
67' Toche

Olympiakos : Carroll, Torosidis, Manolas, Siovas (90' Contreras), Holebas, Modesto (76' Greco), Maniatis, Ibagaza (62' Machado), Fuster, Abdoun, Djebbour

We travelled North to the bourdello of Toumba for todays game against the Bulgarians of PAOK. As it promised, it was a lively match with us working hard to control possession and also chase the ball when we had to. Eventually our hard work and persistance broke down the Voulgaroi defence and it was Djebbour with a cannon of a shot who opened the scoring. Djebbour's goal marked his 9th in 8 matches and possibly the best of those 9 scored so far. An absolutely superb shot to put the filth chasing the game and shut up the catamites in the stadium.

We should have increased our lead during the second half but profligacy from Machado wasted a couple of chances whilst Fuster had a good shot on goal but found his effort and a little more power would have probably doubled the scoreline. Fuster had another superb chance to score later in the match but managed, inexplicably, to fire his shot wide of goal. The Voulgaroi managed to steal a draw right at the end of the game following three fairly insipid substitutions which failed to address any shortcomings in the teams play and removed any sort of attacking flair.

Rubbish performances from Machado and Fuster which unfortunately were never addressed, poor also from Modesto and Torosidis - However a good performance from Djebbour who scored the goal.

Voulgaroi 1-1 Olympiakos
27' Djebbour
88' Athanasiadis

Olympiakos : Carroll, Torosidis, Manolas, Siovas, Holebas, Maniatis, Modesto (77' Fejsa), Machado, Fuster, Abdoun (87' Greco), Djebbour (71' Mitroglou).

After a break of a week for international games, we had a league match against Skoda Xanthi. Prior to the start of the game we had a ceremony for former striker and newly appointed club scout, Giovanni Silva De Oliviera. The crowd voiced their appreciation for the Brazilian at the small ceremony and we then moved onto the game proper.

The first chance of the match came for Xanthi with Marcelino taking a tight shot against the outside of the goal just 51 seconds into the game. Unfortunately (especially for a home match) Xanthi were matching us across the pitch for the opening ten minutes and we were having some trouble in creating effective chances in this period. We were capable of getting as far as the Xanthi box on occasion but were incapable of getting further for the minute and were being closed down in front of goal too often.

Our rather scrappy play continued into the half and despite our absolute dominance with regards to possession (70% at 20 minutes) we weren't creating the chances in front of goal. In fact it was Xanthi who won the first corner of the match after a run down our left wing caused more problems than it should have. To be fair though we grabbed a corner of our own just moments later and had our first opening shot on goal from Machado afterwards. Xanthi came forward a couple of times after this and kept pressurising our defence but we held our own for the moment.

Somewhat shockingly Xanthi managed to get 3 players on 1 during a counter attack down the pitch but luckily screwed up their final shot. By comparison we were looking very poor at going forwards. Finally however we managed to get the goal in the 38th minute and went into the lead. The goal came from a set piece lobbed into the box and met by the head of Manolas. Manolas had a great header past the keeper and into the net for the opener. The goal seemed to revitalise our team and we made a number of chances after this point, none of them successful but it was a much better sight after the rather tepid football seen earlier.

In the second half, we started off with a great chance courtesy of Djebbour and then another shot from Fuster which bounced off the underside of the crossbar before going out of play. The second goal was coming though and it duly fell to Jose Holebas with a low shot from the edge of the box which crept into the corner to double our lead. Djebbour grabbed a third goal for the team three minutes later after a free kick was prodded home at the far end of the net and our victory was now assured. The team had played so much better since grabbing the first goal and with so much more confidence. The goals were simply a result of our improved play.

The scoring wasn't finished however and Djebbour scored possibly the best goal of the game in the 63rd minute with a first time shot, over the keeper and into the back of the net. Fuster laying on the assist with a sublime pass and the team as a whole playing very well now. To help with the teams fitness and in preparation of the game against the French, two alterations were made to the team. As both Holebas and Machado left the pitch the crowd applauded their contributions enthusiastically.

Djebbour came close to the net for a third and final time before he was substituted whilst Xanthi tried to regroup after conceding four goals. Our final substitution of Djebbour for Vlachodimos allowed us to see the young winger in competitive action for the first time (and against his former club) and anticipation was clearly high as the crowd chanted his name as he came onto the pitch. For the game, we had final chances from Mitroglou (wide), Manolas (over from 3 feet out) and Vlachodimos (wide) before the final whistle. However after the game ended (3 minutes of extra time) the crowd sounded their appreciation on a great second half performance.

Olympiakos 4-0 Skoda Xanthi
38' Manolas
51' Holebas
54' Djebbour
63' Djebbour

Olympiakos : Carroll, Maniatis, Manolas, Contreras, Holebas (69' Torosidis), Modesto, Greco, Machado (69' Mitroglou), Fuster, Abdoun, Djebbour (78' Vlachodimos)