Olympiakos vs PAOK: Greek Cup Semi-Final Second Leg

 Olympiakos vs PAOK: 

Greek Cup Semi-Final Second Leg


By Stephen Kountourou



After the first leg in Thessaloniki ended all square, the tie between Olympiakos and PAOK is poised on a knife-edge going into the decider in Piraeus. Both sides will believe that they are capable of reaching the Greek Cup Final and earn the bragging rights over the other for the rest of the season.   



Brief Post Match 


After a poor performance against Panathinaikos in the league over the weekend, Pedro Martins set up his Olympiakos team more conservatively in 4-3-3 with the hope of catching the home side on the counter and not conceding too many chances. PAOK did much the same as they too had suffered a defeat to local rivals Aris and much like their southern rivals did not want to make it two losses in a row.


This sadly made for a rather cagey affair between the two sides with arguably the best chance coming from the away side. Masouras thought he had put his side ahead in the first half, only for his goal to be correctly ruled out for offside and continuing his goal drought. 


During the second half, PAOK found a bit more momentum as they were spurred on by their home team and came close on a few occasions to break the deadlock. Thrylos could count themselves lucky however that both Sokratis and Manolas were in top form on Wednesday evening and were able to stave off the wave of PAOK attacks. 


Ultimately a draw was a fair result for both sides and while there was an improvement from both teams defensively, there was a sacrifice of attacking creatively, particularly on Olympiakos part to grind out the result and take the tie to Piraeus on level terms


Injuries and Suspensions 


While there are no major injuries for Olympiakos going into their home tie, Martins will hope to have creative trio Mathieu Valbuena, Agibou Camara and Kostas Fortounis available after not being risked last week at Toumba.


PAOK meanwhile have added Leo Jaba to their injury list. The winger will miss the second leg in Piraeus and is not due to return until next month. 


Prediction


Despite the first leg finishing all square with some improvement from the previous weekend league fixtures, many fans felt that both sides still performed poorer than what was expected of them in such a huge rivalry. Even with the aggregate scoreline being level many believe that Olympiakos have the upper hand in this match being at home and with PAOK failing to win in Piraeus in the previous four attempts. The last time victory for the Thessaloniki side in Karaiskakis came in the league during the 19/20 season in a last gasp 0-1 win.


I believe that this will be another very close match with both sides looking to capitalise on the other's patchy form. With home advantage, I predict that Olympiakos will narrowly escape with a 1-0 win to reach the Greek Cup Final and end their run of four matches without a victory in all competitions.



Hellas Football

Follow @stevekountourou

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