We beat Veroia earlier tonight by 5-0, all goals being scored in the second half. The first half was frankly shit so it was good to see us improve and get a demolishing win. Veroia dropped apart after the second goal which is why the score line was so high. Still, plaudits for Maniatis and Olaitan for good performances and assists.

Veroia 0-5 Olympiakos

59' Dominguez, 69' Perez, 70' Olaitan, 85' Maniatis, 92' Olaitan

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).

Todays game marked the start of a new superleague season and saw us make the trip to the city of Veroia. After our indifferent preseason campaign it was a welcome to start to the campaign and we wanted to begin tonight with a victory and three points.

The start of the game was fought over with both sides attempting to put their mark on the game early on. We did perhaps have the better of the ball possession but it was pretty closely tied in the opening ten minutes. On the stroke of ten minutes, Veroia managed to put the ball in the net but this was judged to be offside and not given. We almost pulled in front at the other end of the pitch but our header from a corner was cleared off the line.

We started to push Veroia slowly but surely further up the pitch as the first half dragged on. We came close to opening the scoring with a shot from Djebbour in the 18th minute but his effort was pushed behind. Djebbour was the player to open the scoring though, the subsequent corner was played short then crossed into the box, where he poked it into the net from the near post.

Our lead lasted just ten minutes though before Veroia equalised. The goal was a tragic mistake from Carroll who came off his line to gather asoft free kick delivered from the front into the box, he fumbled the ball, dropping it directly into the path of Ioannou who was by now unmarked and with a clear goal in front of him.

Despite this terrible mistake, we looked reasonable enough going forward and it looked like it would just be a matter of time before we went back in front. We were taking the majority of the possession and Veroia were reduced to the merest of counter attacks to even see some action. Djebbour and Machado were leading the line in all of our attacks.
It was another goalkeeping mistake which led to the third goal of the match. Daskalakis came to collect a corner, flapped at the ball and dropped it right into the path of Modesto. So thats two stupid errors so far from the goalkeepers, anymore in the second half?

We started off reasonably well after the restart getting the ball up the pitch and our midfield playing well to keep possession of the ball. We had a couple of chances in the early part of the second half but none of them successfull. Veroia had perhaps the best chance at this stage of the game with a shot cannoned off the upright in a rare counterattack by them. At the other end, we had a few more chances to increase the lead but didn't manage to get any clear shots on goal away.

We started to calm down the play as the half wore on with the result that Veroia got a little more time on the ball at our expense. They also started to get forward a little too much to my liking as we changed to a more defensive playing style. Jardim took the opportunity to start changing the midfield to help our team and so Fuster came on in the 72nd minute as our first substitution. Inexplicably Veroia missed a golden chance to equalise in the 75th minute when a clearance from Modesto was deflected in front of their player 2 metres from the goal but luck was on our side and they missed their chance.

The opposition started to attack our goal even more in the last fifteen minutes of the game as they searched out an equalising goal. For the time being though, we held together defensively even if our clearances looked desperate at times. The Macedonian team became more frantic in their efforts to equalise and we came close to taking advantage through the counter on at least one occasion. There was however no further goals in the game and the game finished after 3 minuets of extra time with the scores still 1-2.

You could never have said that this was a vintage performance. We looked tired as the game progressed but we performed well enough to grab the three points with our best players being Machado and Djebbour. We move onto our first home game of the season next weekend with Levadiakos being our victims on that day.

Veroia 1-2 Olympiakos
19' Djebbour
30' Ioannou
42' Modesto

Olympiakos :- Carroll, Torosidis, Contreras, Siovas, Holebas, Maniatis, Modesto (87' Greco), Ibagasa, Abdoun (72' Fuster), Machado, Djebbour (82' Mitroglou)

The team of 19 players making the trip to Veroia was named this morning and will consist of :-

Goalkeepers (2)
Megyeri. Carroll

Defenders (7)
Siovas, Contreras, Holebas, Papazoglou, Torosidis, Modesto, Maniatis

Midfielders (7)
Greco, Ibagasa, Fuster, Fetfatzidis, Fejsa, Abdoun, Machado

Attackers (3)
Mitroglou, Pantelic, Djebbour

Vlachodimos, Manolas and Lykogiannis didn't make the team and will remain in Athens with the remainder of the training staff.

Iosif Daskalakis has been transferred to Superleague club Veroia. The simple statement from their website read :-
"Veroia announces the acquisition of Iosif Daskalakis for one year".
Daskalakis was disappointing for us and was considered fourth choice after the arrival of Gianniotas.