The first step to be the first in the history of the month of April in the European Cups is what he wants to do Olympic welcoming Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday to the packed “G. Karaiskakis” for the “16” of the Conference League (19:45, COSMOTE Sport 3, News Bulletin 247 and sport-fm.gr).
The “red and whites” want to certify that they are in a very good playing condition, as they count seven consecutive victories in all competitions, while with the Jose Luis Mendilibar on their bench they have 6/6. The Basque coach is expected to line up the best possible eleven from the available players, since the derby with Panathinaikos for the premiere of the playoffs on Sunday can wait.
THE Rodney despite the discomfort, he is expected to compete normally, while O. was left out of the mission Alexandropoulos which hurts in the middle. She is dominant the eleven of Budapest, i.e. with Paschalakis, Rodinei, Retso, Carmo, Ortega, Ese, Ciquinio, Horta, Fortuni, El Cambi and Pontense. The 21-member team consists of the following players: Papadoudis, Carvallio, Karmo, Tsiquinio, El Kaabi, Fortunis, Ese, Horta, Ibora, Iovetic, Masouras, Ortega, Paschalakis, Pontense, Richards, Rodinei, Tzolakis, Doi, Retsos, El Arabi , Kinney.
On the contrary, the Maccabi Tel Aviv comes with… times in “G. Karaiskakis”, as in addition to being a pioneer in the Israeli league (+1 from the champion Maccabi Haifa) this year he is having an excellent season in Europe having in twelve matches only one defeat (2-0 from Ghent) and a total of nine wins finishing first in the group stage. Injured defenders Derrick Lucassen, Raz Shlomo and Sheran Gainey are out. Striker Jonas Malende, who is not on the European list, and Dan Beaton, who is out for the season with a torn cruciate ligament, are also out. On the side of Maccabi in “G. Karaiskakis” and around 1,500 friends of the team will be there.
Tradition and the referee
Olympiakos he doesn’t have the best memories from matchups with teams from Israel. It counts just one win, three draws and four defeats in eight games, but also three eliminations, one of which was by its next opponent, in the first year of Vangelis Marinakis’ tenure at the reins of the club.
He will be the referee of the match the Englishman Craig Pawson, A’ Category, which has often found itself in the way of Greek teams. In particular, the 45-year-old English referee has “whistled” two games of Olympiakos, on 14/2/2019, he was at home 2-2 with Dynamo Kyiv for the intermediate phase of the Europa League, while on 13/10/2022 he was at Karabagh-Olympiakos 0-0 for the Europa League groups. Last year, Pawson managed Panathinaikos-PAOK 1-1 for the 8th game of the playoffs.
The VAR will be Chris Cavanaugh assisted by Jared Gavan Gillett, while the assistants will be Simon Bennett and Ian Hassin, all Englishmen.
Pawson has been to Greece once this year, in Panathinaikos-Villarreal 2-0, while it was also in Ajax-AEK 3-1, both for the Europa League groups. He has also been named in 13 Premier League games.
Possible compositions:
Olympiakos (Jose Luis Mediliber): Paschalakis-Rotinei, Retsos, Karmo, Ortega-Ese, Tsiquinio-Horta, Fortunis, Pontense-El Cambi.
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Robbie Keane): Mispati, Revivo, Namias, Saborit, Sahar-Kanikowski, Van Overeim, Peretz-Davida, Milson, Zahavi.
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
