AEK-Olympiakos: Derby from the old days against the background of the top and the playoffs

AEK vs Olympic, act 3. The two “gladiators” cross swords (19:00, Cosmotesport2, bwinSPORT FM, sport-fm.gr) at the “OPAP Arena” in the finale of the regular season of the Stoiximan Super League with the top in the background.

This is the first meeting between the two teams in New Philadelphia for the championship in 20 years, as the recent 3-0 in favor of the Union was in the semi-finals of the Novibet Cup. Their immediately previous duel (9/11/02) at the base of the “yellow and black” had ended in a 1-1 draw, with Djordjevic to open the scoring in the 30th minute for his team Sretsko Katanets and the Nikolaidis to answer in 44′ for her Dusan Bajevic.

To return to the present, this is the first derby between the two teams that decides a lot in quite some time. THE Joinwho have one win and one draw this year against the “red and whites” wants to add another good result against Piraeus in the current season. For prestige reasonsbut also for scorers, since with a win, data will be entered as the first in the playoffs, while effectively putting an important opponent, like Olympiacos, out of the fight. With any other result for Almeida’s team, which has 9 wins in the last 10 matches (they lost 2-0 to PAOK), their position in the mini-league will also depend on Atromitos-Panathinaikos.

THE Olympic on the other hand, he is forced to play “all for all” for various reasons. Since in the case of a “double” he will be at -3 from Union and at worst he will remain at -5 from Panathinaikos. In case of a draw, he will keep -6 from the Union, but he will risk going to -7 from the “greens”. In case of defeat, his chances of winning the title will be minimized. Beyond that, prestige is always at stake in these cases and the lure of the first victory in the newly built home of the “yellow and black” is great for the Piraeus, who have yet to achieve a derby victory this year.

Matias Almeida will have Levi Garcia at his disposal, who is normally in the Missioneven though he hasn’t had much training in his legs, while Tzavellas, Galanopoulos and Van Weert were left out, without facing any problem.

At Mitchell’s disposal are Hames, who last played on 13/2 in the 6-1 win over Panaitolikos, and also Samasekou, who sustained an injury in the match against Levadeiakos. Although he has returned to training, Gary is out, as well as Cisse, as he did not make the 23rd. As expected, the suspended Papastathopoulos and the “caught” – from the derby with Panathinaikos – Embilas are out.

The mission of AEK: Stankovic, Athanasiadis, Mukudi, Mohammadi, Rota, Vida, Mitoglou, Hadjisafi, Sidibe, Simanski, Jonson, Gacinovic, Pineda, Franson, Mandalos, Amrabad, Levi Garcia, Zuber, Araujo, Eliasson, Fernandez.

The mission of Olympiakos: Androutsos, Ba, Bakabou, Boutoutsi, Kanos, El Arabi, Fortounis, Huang, James Rodríguez, Kasami, Christianson, Masouras, Doi, Reabciuk, Paschalakis, Biel, Ramon, Retsos, Rodiney, Samasekou, Tzolakis, Valbuena, Brusai.

Possible lineups

AEK (Matias Almeida): Athanasiadis – Rota, Vida, Mukudi, Hadjisafi – Szymanski, Eliasson, Gacinovic, Pineda – Araujo, Zuber (Livay Garcia)

Olympiacos (Mitchell): Paschalakis – Rodinei, Ba, Doi, Reabciuk – Huang, Samaseku – Biel, Fortounis, Masouras – Bakabou

Referee: Maurizio Mariani (Italy)

Assistants: Daniele Bidoni and Alberto Tegoni (Italy)

Fourth: Evangelos Manouhos (Argolidas)

VAR: Eugenio Abatista (Italy) and Konstantinos Psarris (Zante)