Hellas Football

Litmus Test? Passed! By Christian Leggas  Olympiacos have secured back-to-back wins to start this season's UEFA Europa League campaign, notching an impressive away from home success against Turkish side Fenerbache.   The visitors lined up in what seemed to be a four-two-three-one formation. A notable aspect of their starting eleven was Ousseynou Ba lining up in an unfamiliar role at right-back.   The visitors couldn't have gotten off to a better start, as they took the lead five minutes into the game. Giorgos Masouras cut off a pass in the centre of the park. Which lead to a dangerous ball being played back to him from Aguibou Camara. The Greek-international then played through a beautifully weighted pass of his own to striker Tiquinho, who dinked the ball over Fenerbache goalkeeper Altay Bayindir to give Olympiacos a confidence-boosting early lead.   Despite having a decent amount of possession half-an-hour into the game, Fenerbache could only manufacture half-chanc...

Fenerbahce vs Olympiakos: Europa League Match Day 2 Preview By Stephen Kountourou  After a week off, it’s back to business with European competition with the second round of fixtures. Match Day 2 brings with it some very compelling looking ties that could result in more memorable and exciting nights for the supporters either staging the match at home or making the journey around the continent to watch their team play. For the Thrylos faithful, it’s a reasonably short journey over the Aegean to Turkey and Olympiakos match up against Fenerbahce. Clashes between Greek and Turkish teams are always a fiery affair and this one is being built up to be no different.  Despite football perhaps not always being the focus in these circumstances, the players of Olympiakos and Pedro Martins should try to remove themselves from that and fully focus on football, as well as on the tough task at hand by playing one of Turkey's biggest clubs. So once again, I will be previewing Olympiakos in Eur...

Olympiakos vs Royal Antwerp Match Review. By Christian Leggas, Olympiacos have begun their 2021-22 UEFA Europa League campaign with the ideal result, claiming a two-one win over Royal Antwerp.   The game had a fast pace about it for its entirety. Two minutes in, and we saw the first chance. As Antwerp's Mbwana Samatta put wide a header from close range that at least should have been on target.   Olympiacos' first chance came eleven minutes later when captain Andreas Bouchalakis did well to keep a byline-bound ball in play with a neat backheel, then turn, to set up Youssef El-Arabi, who had his shot blocked.   An even clearer opportunity to score was to come seven minutes later when man-of-the-match Mady Camara had time and space to test Antwerp goalkeeper Jean Butez, but his tame effort didn't trouble him as he made an easy save.   A dead ball presented Olympiacos' next best chance to score. As a well-flighted ball by Andreas Bouchalakis found the head of Pape Cissé....

PAOK Lincoln Red Imps Preview By Alain Anastasakis  Thursday night will be a historic match. History in several ways since it will be the first participation of a Greek club in the newly created Conference League, but also a first participation in a European Cup group phase for a club from Gibraltar.  The context : The game promises to be totally unbalanced on paper, but PAOK should definitely not underestimate its opponent.  The mishap against Bohemian or the first leg against Rijeka should prompt PAOK to do much better. A worrying inefficiency which, we hope, was only temporary. The play and the players: Following a disastrous performance against PAS Giannina on Sunday, PAOK must come back from the British enclave not only with a result, but also with style. Perhaps this match will finally be the one that allows Lucescu to change his mind.  The Romanian technician will probably stick to his usual 4-2-3-1 so we may have some surprises in the starting lineup.  N...

Olympiakos vs Antwerp:   Europa League Preview By Stephen Kountourou  European competition is back! Now that the qualifiers are done and the domestic leagues have also begun to take shape continental football has also returned to bring joy to all teams fortunate enough to compete in any of UEFA’s three tournaments. Teams from all across the continent will compete in the group stages from now until December to decide who will reach the knockout stages, who will drop down into the next competition down and who will be leaving far too soon. Olympiakos fans will be hoping that the latter option does not happen this season, as the Greek champions begin their European campaign against Belgian side Royal Antwerp.  This will be a stern test for Thrylos who have not quite found their identity as a team under Pedro Martins this season. Many have called this a must win game if Olympiakos have any hope of competing in Europe to any capacity in the new year and I agree with those sent...

Olympiakos: Europa League   Group Stage Build Up By Stephen Kountourou  It’s that time of year again, continental club football is just around the corner. The group stages have been drawn and there are certainly some interesting ties for all football fans to look forward to in the three of UEFA’s official competitions. Olympiakos particularly have particularly fascinating opponents in this season's Europa League group stage, with Belgian side Royal Antwerp, Turkish side Fenerbahce and German side Frankfurt being drawn to play the Greek champions.  This is certainly a tough but competitive group for Thrylos this campaign and to finish top or even second in group D will require complete concentration and hard work from Match Day 1 to Match Day 6 for Pedro Martins men if they have any hope of living up to the potential this team possess.  They must use this chance now to rectify the failure to qualify for the Champions League and progress to the latter stages of this to...

Dare to Dream? By Antoni   12 September 2021   Well PAO fans, how are we feeling? It has been more than twenty-four hours since we got to see our beautiful club take the pitch again in an exhilarating 4-0 thumping over Apollon. This match had it all, anticipation, anxiety, a sold out crowd (though not a packed house due to COVID restrictions), and the debut of several new players.   We also got to watch an opening game at home for the first time since 2013, and the atmosphere was absolutely magical. It could be that last season’s empty stadiums took a toll and I forgot what it felt like to have fans inside cheering our players on, but still, it was a feeling that just never gets old.   For the first time in years we watched Panathinaikos dominate a match nearly from start to finish. Now I am mindful of the shaky start to the match, but I will place that on the nerves due to the occasion and the new faces making their debut. Once Panathinaikos grew into the game there...

Atromitos Season Preview By Michael Vissini, Atromitos and fans will want to forget last season, missing out on the playoffs and finishing second best behind Volos in the relegation group.  That on paper looks okay, but overall underwhelming considering their form throughout the 20/21 season was nothing but inconsistent. Of course, it also happened to be Javier Umbides final season and hung up his boots, losing a big voice in the team ahead of the 21/22 Super League season. With the abrupt development all the way back in winter that club owner Giorgos Spanos was set to walk away in summer as well as leave the club on good financial terms, this never eventuated and Spanos conducted a huge overhaul over the summer. Half of last season’s roster was surplus to requirements, most notably prolific goal-scorer Giorgos Manousos who joined Lamia, defenders Dimitris Goutas and Rodrigo Galo, and the well-known Lazaros Christodoulopoulos now plying his trade in Cyprus for Anorthosis. Of course...