Hellas Football

Olympiakos Champions Mathematically... For Now By Stephen Kountourou, On the 28th of June 2020, Olympiakos defeated AEK Athens 1-2 away from home at the OAKA Olympic Stadium. With that victory, the dominant Thrylos side are sitting on top of the table on 78 points, 19 ahead of second placed PAOK with 6 games to go. Mathematically Olympiakos are finally champions of Greece, with fans all over social media celebrating their team's 45th league title. Worryingly though, not one of Olympiakos official social media accounts or the players are celebrating as though they have finally achieved what they set out to do at the beginning of the season to reclaim the Greek Super League. Despite me wanting to celebrate the 3 year wait for Olympiakos to once again reach the pinnacle of Greek football, I cannot help but think that the wait is not over yet.  There unfortunately is still the court case with the court of arbitration for Sport to see through in July, and with a potential punishment awa...

Player Profile: Aitor Cantalapiedra   By: Antonios Theodosis    With Panathinaikos heading in a new direction for next season, the club’s technical director Xavi Roca has already started to bring in the players he has envisioned for the new project. One of these players is Aitor Cantalapiedra, a player with immense talent that has many Panathinaikos fans excited for the new season.    Aitor has played in some of Europe’s best leagues and clubs. The talented winger started his professional footballing career at Spanish powerhouse club FC Barcelona, making eighteen appearances for their B team and scoring four goals. He also made two appearances for the senior side in the Copa Del Rey. He then had brief stints with Villareal and Sevilla B, amassing over twenty appearances for the latter in 2017-2018 season before making the switch to Twente in Holland. Aitor played arguably the best football of his career during his two year stint in the Eredivisie. The Spanish ac...

Play Offs & Play Outs Round 4 Preview By Greg Gavalas Match day 4 of the Play Offs and Play Outs still has big battles in both groups going strong and there is no rest for most teams with many critical matches accounting for the Champions League spot and the relegation battle taking a new turn after Xanthi’s mid-week win over Atromitos. It should be noted, for this round, foreign referees will be used in the Aris-PAOK match along with the AEK-Olympiakos match. Play Offs OFI vs Panathinaikos The opening match of the Play Offs is by far and away the match with the least heat on it as OFI and PAO do battle in Crete. Both teams are coming off unconvincing performances with the Cretans in dire form, in their away match with PAOK last week, OFI still struggled to pressure an out of sorts home team but was rather unlucky to concede an penalty in the 90th minute with the score at 1-1, and they went on to lose 3-1. Panathinaikos had a poor showing also and went down to eternal rivals Olympi...

Olympiakos Stars of the Season  As Olympiakos move ever closer towards their inevitable 45 League title, a big reason for the teams success both domestically and in Europe has to come down to the recent recruitment of players coming to the port of Piraeus.  Since the rather calamitous 17/18 season, with a huge overhaul of players both at the beginning and end of the season, the change in scouting has helped Thrylos make much more shrewed acquisitions and while they signed some great players in 18/19, there were others that were sub par, and it was clear that the Erythrolefki was still very much in transition. This season however, Pedro Martins has clearly moulded the team in his own image and playing style and who have now all but stormed to the Greek Super League title, thanks to most new signings from the summer of 2019 and January 2020.  So, in the blog I will be having a look at the best Olympiakos signings this season, which has both returned Thrylos to the top of Gr...

Greece's New First Choice Central Attacking Midfielder? At the end of the 2018/19 season, the career of Anastasios Bakasetas had seemed to have hit a brick wall, with six goals and three assists from thirty matches across all competitions after being utilized on the right and left wings and in attacking midfield.  Why these numbers you may ask?  Because he was unnecessarily played in multiple positions. When last season concluded, a move to Turkish club Alanyaspor beckoned, and as it turns out, this was the best move he could have made to resurrect his career, why? Because firstly, his new coach Erol Bulut stuck him in attacking midfield and left him there, rather than shifting him to a wing, where he does not thrive for club and country.  And with eleven goals and seven assists from thirty- six matches in all competitions to show for it, and with matches still to play, it's clear that Central Attacking Midfield is where he belongs. Now turning to his Ethniki appearances,...

Return of the King By Gavin Waymire   When I last wrote on the state of Olympiakos during the midseason break, my mood was much more negative. Things had gone the same way they had in the past several seasons for the Erythrolefkoi.  Despite some heavy investment in the summer, things didn’t seem to be working for the Piraeus giants. We had scraped through our Champions League group in third place on the final day against Crvena Zvezda, earning a spot in the Europa League knockouts.  In Greece we were undefeated, however five draws out of seventeen matches including disappointing results against some relegation scrappers just wasn’t enough. We found ourselves below PAOK once again, and you couldn’t have faulted me for expecting the worst; expecting yet another repeat of the previous few seasons.  I feared a run of poor form around February, which would see us fall out of contention on all fronts. To my great delight, this time was different. In fact, Olympiakos seem t...

An Open Letter to Panathinaikos Fans: By: Antonios Theodosis  We have all seen it, Panathinaikos have fallen to eternal rivals Olympiakos 3-0 in an embarrassing fashion this weekend. Emotions are running high, tensions as well. It is never a good feeling when you lose to your arch rival, especially in a thumping defeat. For many of us the derby of the eternal enemies is one that we look forward to with enthusiasm and excitement. Historically the two clubs have always put on a good show in these derbies. The quality on the pitch today was not what Panathinaikos fans wanted to see, neither was the result. It is something we quickly want to forget, but at the same time is stirring concern amongst the fans.  There is light at the end of the tunnel. This current squad will for the most part be dismantled, a squad that does not necessarily exude the talent needed to compete with Olympiakos, PAOK, and AEK. This summer the club will be moving into a new chapter, one spearheaded by tec...