Greek Cup Quarter Final First Leg Summary

Greek Cup Quarter Final First Leg Summary

By Greg Gavalas

The first leg of the Greek Cup Quarter Finals have been played out and it leaves much to

play for in the second leg for each game.

Three draws and one outright win was the conclusion, Lamia and Olympiakos opened the round with a 0-0 draw in Lamia, which was followed by with a 1-1 draw between Panetolikos and AEK, a result that favours AEK with the away goal.

The Derby of the round saw PAOK come away big winners in Toumba, 2-0 over

Panathinaikos who they had lost to with the same scoreline in Athens just 3 days earlier,

making for an enthralling second leg in Athens next week.

Aris and Atromitos rounded off the first legs with a 0-0 in Thessaloniki and as such makes

this tie the most open of the four.

Match by Match

Lamia vs Olympiakos 0-0

The match in Lamia saw Olympiakos field a largely unfamiliar team with Frenchman Bobby

Allain in goals, Vasilis Torosidis making a start as well as Avraam Papadopoulos in defence.

In midfield, Kostas Fortounis also started his first match since his devastating knee injury

and new signing Cafu started in the middle of defence too. There was rare starts for Lazar Randelovic, returning Egyptian forward Hassan and Argentine young gun Alberto Lovera.

Despite the unfamiliar line up, Olympiakos dictated play for the most part, Lamia set up

strong defensively which is the only strong point of their game at the moment, this was

highlighted in this match also as they barely put Olympiakos under pressure.

The home team’s poor run of results continues since selling to scorer Rogerio Thuram, their

last win over a Super League opponent coming one month ago.

Despite the lack of attack, a huge moment of the match saw a penalty awarded to the home

side when Papadopoulos brought down Lamia forward Miguel Bianconi however the

introduction of VAR to the Quarter Finals of the Greek Cup did find the Brazilian forward

was offside so no penalty.

Olympiakos are expected to come away comfortable winners in the return leg next week.

Panetolikos vs AEK 1-1

A wet Agrinio hosted the second match of the Quarter Finals, it saw AEK coach Masimo

Carerra go with a 3-5-2 and Stavros Vasiliantopoulos get a start on the right wing and Marko

Livaja pared up with Christos Albanis up front.

AEK started well and dominated play, sadly just as the Livaja-Albanis combo was working

well, the Greek forward suffered a knee injury early on and had to be subbed off.

Sergio Araujo came on and had a metrio match. AEK’s pressure did pay off though and they

opened the scoring when Livaja headed a free kick into the penalty area and Efstratios

Svarnas headed home.

To Pentolikos’s credit they lifted a gear and came at AEK after that. The AEK defence held

out the pressure although the team did not come out firing in the second half and a

wayward pass from Dmytro Chygrynskiy allowed in form Panetolikos striker, Dudua to fire

home and give the home team some hope for the return leg.

PAOK vs Panathinaikos 2-0

The most anticipated match was certainly a lively affair in the night of Toumba.

Both PAOK and Panathinaikos came at each other and it showed for one of the better derby

games this season.

PAOK showed a much different side to the team that lost in Athens and pressured the PAO

defence much more all-round the field whilst for the greens Tassos Chatzigiovannis was

causing PAOK many headaches on the left wing, the same cannot be said for Ioannis

Bouzoukis who struggled to penetrate on the right.

An error from Bouzoukis lead to PAOK opening the scoring from the penalty box, after been

disposed Dimitris Pelkas found himself in front of goal but contact with Emanual Insua saw a

penalty correctly awarded, in a common sight at Toumba, PAOK captain Vieirinha converted

from the spot.

In the second half Chatzigiovanis was subbed off early on and it really hurt the greens attack

which didn’t really threaten the home side much, this allowed PAOK to go on the attack and

the introduction of Lazaros Lambrou and his speed gave control to PAOK, the 22 year old

found himself in front of goal several times but couldn’t convert.

PAOK was eventually rewarded for their dominance with Fernando Varela converting a

Vieirinha cross to make it 2-0.

Whilst PAOK hold a big goal advantage going into the second leg, an early PAO goal (and it’s

possible) makes this a very interesting game to look out for.

Aris vs Atromitos 0-0

Aris fans were glad to see the return of Savvas Pantelidis to the Kleanthis Vikelidis – on the

opposition’s bench that is however Pantelidis’s Atromitos was able to squeeze out a good

result for them that leaves all possibilities for the return leg at Peristeri.

Aris dominated the match and got close to scoring when Nicolas Diguiny saw his shot

cleared off the line.

Aris’s pressure continued in the second half and after a penalty claim was correctly not

given thanks to VAR, moments later in the 63 rd minute Aris was then awarded a penalty

thanks to a clumsy challenge from Apostolos Vellios on Javier Matilla, however, Bruno Gama

sent his spot kick to the cross bar and as such no goals came from this match as Aris couldn’t

get that final shot on goal.