AEK beat Faliro, remained at the top and knocked out Olympiacos!

Big “double” for her AEK in “G. Karaiskakis”. The Union prevailed 3-1 of Olympiakos, making a dominating appearance in a large part of the match. The Levia’s goal-penalty in 82′ tipped the scales in favor of the “yellow and black”, while o Latch “locked” the “three point” in 90’+1′.

Earlier, Almeida’s side, who had an excellent first half, opened the scoring with Gacinovic (7′), while the answer of the improved Piraeus in the second half came at 54′ with his goal Bakabu.

Therefore, the battle for the title is well underway, with the AEK and Panathinaikos to they continue hand in handhaving 72 points, while the “red and whites” are now -9 from the first place and will fight with PAOK for the 3rd place, having the “doubleheader of the North” at -3.

With episodic way the match ended as fans stormed the pitch and clashed with police, who used chemical agents.

In the minds of the coaches:

With 4-2-3-1 Anigo lined up Olympiakos. Under the goal was Paschalakis, with Rodinei, Cisse, Ba and Reabciuk making up the four in defense. Embila and Huang, as usual, were the duo in the midfield, while in the “3” three tens were used again (Biel, Valbuena and Fortunis). Bakabu started at the top.

Matias Almeida kept it 4-4-1-1, having Athanasiadis under the posts and Rota, Vida, Mukudi, Hadjisafi in the defensive four. Szymanski had a sweeper role, with Pineda somewhat on his side, Eliasson on the right and Gacinovic on the left, while Zuber filled in for the promoted Levi.

The match

The match had a first round scenario, as AEK managed to apply the… recipe of this particular match. Olympiacos looked to come in strong, but their momentum lasted a scant two minutes and then Union managed to bring the game to their feet, successfully pressing high and taking the centre. The non-stop running that Almeida’s team likes short-circuited the Piraeus who were unable to exploit the quality they possess in midfield and which Anigo invested heavily in with the initial formation he chose.

The “yellow and black” wanted to “hit” on the weakness of Olympiakos in the center of the defense and it didn’t take long to create problems. In the 3rd minute, the collaboration of Tzumber, Pineda and Levia brought the first good moment of the match, with Cisse saving the “red and whites”, forcing the forward of AEK into a bad position. Seconds later, the first big phase took place, with Hadjisafi crossing and Eliasson making a one-on-one shot, which Paschalakis made a terrible save by falling low.

The third was also… medicinal from the side of AEK, with Gatsinovic-Zuber playing a nice “one-two” and hurting Olympiakos’ defense, with the Serb executing Paschalakis for 0-1 in the 7th minute. The hosts now had to respond, but were slow to do so as much of the first half went by with Anigo’s side looking harmless. Paschalakis made a second major intervention in the first half, with Pineda catching a shot from outside the area in the 21st minute and the experienced goalkeeper making an impressive save, despite the ball’s change of direction after a counter attack.

Three minutes later, AEK missed another great opportunity, with Zuber in position to shoot from the left, but his volley from a diagonal position sent the ball over the bar. At the same time in Olympiakos, almost nothing was working well in the creative part, with the frequent long balls (many of them were from the stoppers), it showed the fact that the “red and whites” could not find an alternative plan and did not have peace of mind.

More difficult for AEK’s defense was the one in the 29th minute, with Bakabu distributing for Valbuena who crossed for Biel, but Hadjisafi cleared away. In the 39th minute, Embila threatened with a header after a corner kick best moment of Olympiakos in the first part. Olympiacos played stronger in the final stretch of the first half, with some of their players showing footballing ego, such as Embila and Rodney, but they only had incomplete efforts.

The team that showed us that they needed corrective actions after what happened in the first half was clearly Olympiacos. However, the Jose Anigo he sent his team on with the same 11 (as did Almeida) after the break, letting five minutes tick by and then intervened. He took out Valbuena and Biel, with Masoura and Brusai taking their place and the “red and whites” now had a more rational shape, with clearly more runs.

With that happening, Olympiacos succeeded to put pressure on AEK, make her feel defensive about him and ultimately get rewarded early. Vrousai took the ball, crossed and with the counter attack Vida was disorganized, with Bakabou making a nailing header for 1-1 in the 54th minute. In addition to the logic of Olympiakos, their psychology also obviously changed, aggressively limiting AEK, while they began to find their own rhythm offensively.

In the 64th minute, the upset almost happened, with Fortounis taking a corner, Embila taking the header, but Ba and Cisse not being able to find the ball from close range to send it into the net. THE Almeida seeing his team lost in freshness and creation, he put on Amrabat and Jonsson in the 70′, instead of Eliasson and Szymanski, who he probably wanted to protect, seeing as he flirted with a second yellow.

AEK regained breath and missed her first chance after a long time, with Mukudi in a forward position and Paschalakis coming out victorious in the four-a-four. At a point where they were always hanging by a thread, AEK found it 2-1. Vida found himself in the area and after being marked by Reabciuk, he found himself on the ground.

THE Levi he executed it perfectly penalty kick and wrote it 1-2Olympiacos failed to get another reaction and in stoppage time Amrabat stole the ball from Reabchiuk, the “red and white” called for a foul and Latch who emptied Ba did the 3-1. The protests were intense of the home team for a foul at the start of the phase.

The film of the match from sport-fm.gr

MVP: The spotlight due to the decisive goal he scores in the 82nd minute falls fatally on Levia. He was not, however, AEK’s best player. Overall, the most influential player for the winners was Gacinovic, who produced a very full performance, especially in the first half. The excellent presence of Embilas and Paschalakis went to Strafi for the home team.

Whistle: Given there are mistakes from Massa. In the disciplinary control and foul. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken out only the yellow in the whole match. In the most decisive phase of the fight, Vida is on the ground after a duel with Reabciuk. It is a difficult phase and from the replay it seems that there is contact between the knee of the Moldovan and the thigh of the Croat, at the moment when the latter does not step on the ground. The Piraeus also called for Amrbat’s foul on Reabchiuk at the start of the 3-1 phase. They both put their hands in, with the Olympiakos full back coming out of phase.

Olympiacos (Jose Anigo): Paschalakis – Rodinei (84′ Androutsos), Cisse, Ba, Reabciuk – Embila, Huang – Biel, Valbuena (51′ Masouras), Fortounis (84′ Kasami) – Bakabou (77′ El Arabi)

Left on the bench were: Tzolakis, Ramon, Papastathopoulos, Doi

AEK (Matias Almeida): Athanasiadis – Rota, Vida, Mukudi, Hadjisafi – Eliasson (70′ Amrabad), Simanski (70′ Jonson), Pineda (89′ Galanopoulos), Gatsinovich (84′ Fernandes) – Garcia, Zuber (84′ Mandalos)

Left on the bench were: Stankovic, Mitoglou, Tzavellas, Van Weert

Referee: Massa Davide (Italy)

Assistants: Berti Alessio, Bertilli Filippo (Italy)

Fourth: Fotias Basilios

VAR: Piccinini Marco (Italy), AVAR: Kostaras Polychronis