Olympiacos-Panathinaikos: Early final for the “eternals”

The Greek… clasico dominates in the premiere of the Stoiximan Super League playoffs! THE Olympic welcomes him to “Georgios Karaiskakis”. Panathinaikos (20:30, Cosmote Sports, bwinSPORT FM, www.sportfm.gr) and the derby is of pivotal importance.

It is an early final even though we are talking about just the first matchday of the special process, since the winner will be firmly in the title race and the loser will be at a distance and his task will be difficult. A draw doesn’t break, but it doesn’t fix anyone either. Because the “red and white” are third, -3 from the top and -2 from AEK and the “green” are fourth, -4 from first place and -3 from the “yellow and black”.

THE Olympicso he saw his winning streak with Jose Luis Mendilibar to break, however there was an absolute agreement for the renewal of their partnership and the new season. The defeat even came in a bad way, in a match that will hardly be reversed after its 4-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv on the Faleri pitch, it makes Piraeus’ mission to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Europa Conference League almost… impossible. Until Thursday’s rematch in -neutral- Serbia, however, there is today’s derby. The “red and white” are on a streak of five wins in the league and four at home. Specifically, this year’s home record of Piraeus in the league is 10-0-3 with goals 36-13having the top offense in the relevant division and the fourth best defense.

In pure racing, o Mendiliber does not count on the services of the punished Retsuwhile the injured is also out Gelson Martins. Changes may be made by Vasko the technician, who will make a change to the stoppers and it remains to be seen how many more in the middle. Biancone and Doi claim a place next to Karmos, while Masouras is a candidate for the starting line-up.

The Olympiakos team consists of the following players: Biancon, Botis, Carmo, Ciquinho, El Arabi, El Kaabi, Fortunis, Ese, Horta, Ibora, Jovetic, Masouras, Navarro, Abi, Doi, Ortega, Paschalakis, Pontense, Kini, Rodinei, Tzolakis.

O Panathinaikos, on the other side, is called upon to react after the bad results of the last month. Because three goals came that dropped him to fourth place from first, bringing tied results in the two home matches with Lamia (2-2), Kifisia (1-1) and away with OFI (2-2). The entirety of it Fatih Terim he has to put the losses behind him and stay on top and title track, since if he doesn’t win he will have quite a distance from the top. Away from home in the league this season, the “clover” has a record 8-2-3, with the five point losses no doubt considered a lot! The goals in these 13 games are 29-13boasting the second best offense and the second best defensive performance.

As far as competitive issues are concerned, the Turkish coach cannot count them out Huancar, Schenkefeldwho followed an individual program, the Gedvai who treated, the… permanently absent due to injury Magnusson, Palmer-Brown but also the unprepared Verbich. Out of mission is also Aitor. Regarding the eleven, no particular surprises are expected, with Terim taking the best of his available options.

The chosen ones of the “clover” in detail: Dragovski, Lodingin, Lillo, Ruben, Zeka, Ioannidis, Bakasetas, Sporar, Bernard, Limnios, Cerin, Mancini, Hugo, Mladenovic, Kotsiras, Geremegev, Djuricic, Palacios, Vilena, Arao, Akaidin.

POSSIBLE ELEVENS:

Olympiakos (Jose Luis Mediliber): Paschalakis – Rodinei, Biancon, Carmo, Ortega – Ese, Horta – Masouras, Fortounis, Pontense – El Caabi.

Panathinaikos (Fatih Terim): Dragovski – Kotsiras, Arao, Ugo, Mladenovic – Ruben, Cerin, Bakasetas – Palasios, Ioannidis, Bernard.

Referee: Slager (Germany)

Assistants: Wasitsky, Bloss (Germany)

Fourth: Fire

VAR: Miller (Germany), Buxbaum

The two teams have met four other times this year. The first was in… the episodic derby with the firecracker that went off next to Huancar, with the match not being completed and Panathinaikos taking it 3-0 on paper (and Olympiacos being vindicated in the CAS, taking back the one extra degree that had been taken away from him). In the second round, the greens prevailed 2-0, while in the Cup the two teams were in the round of 16. Two draws (1-1 at Leoforo, 0-0 at Karaiskakis) were the result, with the trefoil finally advancing to the penalty shootout at the Faleri stadium.