AEK Athens: The Champions' Perfect Week
AEK Athens: The Champions' Perfect Week
Reigning league and cup champions AEK have a few good days behind them. A 2-3 win against Brighton in England last Thursday was followed up with a 1-2 win against Panathinaikos away in a change of capital on Monday. The perfect week was completed with another three-pointer against Atromitos on Thursday evening at home at Agia Sophia, which was, however, very far inside.
What a seven-day period it has been for the reigning league and cup champions AEK. It started last Thursday (21/9) when the yellow and black took a hugely nice victory away to Brighton 2-3 in the first group stage of the Europa League.
It was also the Premier League club's debut in the context of the European Cup. A triumph not many saw coming but coach Matías Almeyda had the plan ready for him against the eminent Brighton coached by tactical revolutionary Roberto de Zerbi. The Argentine went a bit on the knock against the Italian and dared to play/press with the team high up the court, which is one of the many characteristics of his AEK.
French 2018 world champion Djibril Sidibe opened the scoring with a fabulous header from a corner. Brighton equalized on penalties but shortly before the break, Mijat Gacinovic gave "Enosis" the lead again. Highlights ]. It was also notable that AEK lined up without both of their injured regular centre-backs Domagoj Vida and Harold Moukoudi.
A couple of days later, namely on Monday (25/9), AEK went to Leoforos Alexandras for a capital city derby against Panathinaikos. Almeyda rotated a lot in the team and, among other things, 3/4 of the back line consisted of non-regular players.
The greens got off to a flying start to the match as Filip Djuricic gave the home team the lead. 10 minutes before the break, Steven Zuber equalized for AEK. The same Zuber was behind the 1-2 winning goal in the second half when the Swiss national team midfielder found Orbelin Pineda whose goal decided the derby in AEK's favour, [Highlights].
In the match, Panathinaikos had central concerns in central defence but also in midfield. Unfortunately for the greens, Hordur Magnusson was injured immediately in the match. The centre-back has suffered a cruciate ligament injury, which means that the Greens will have to manage without him for the next six months. Heavy break for the team and coach Ivan Jovanovic. Among other things, AEK wanted the victory more and also had more energy than Panathinaikos had for the evening.
Yesterday Thursday (28/9) AEK was back at home at Agia Sophia in Nea Filadelfeia where they completed their perfect week with a 2-1 victory against Atromitos. However, the win was very far away. The home team led 1-0 at the break after a spot-kick penalty by Nordin Amrabat. AEK controlled the match well but did not manage to "kill" the event with a 2-0 goal.
Instead, AEK began to slow down towards the end of the match and the bells rang when the visitors had a goal disallowed by VAR with ten minutes left to play after a long and difficult review. Referee Ioannis Papadopoulos and his VAR team would continue to be in the spotlight. They had more to stand for with two minutes left of regular time, Atromitos was awarded a penalty and AEK's Djibril Sidibe was shown the red card.
Karol Angielski scored the penalty to make it 1-1. Shortly afterwards in added time, it was AEK's turn to receive a penalty again after a somewhat inattentive August Erlingmark incurred the penalty when he tried to clear the ball from his own penalty area while Petros Mantalos made the most of the situation. Mijat Gacinovic stepped forward and gave AEK the win through a fantastically executed Panenka penalty, [Highlights].
AEK got away with just a scare against an Atromitos who stood up well. Tough way to lose for the Peristeri club, especially given that they had a tough start to the season on penalties. Coach Chris Coleman did not appear at the press conference after the match, which was a way of showing his and the club's displeasure with the refereeing in the match.
In short, the votes in favour of foreign referees in all matches (not just summits/derby) will not be lowered after this league round but rather they got more water to their mill considering incidents in other matches as well. What will happen with the new referee base after Steve Bennett was fired also remains to be seen.
AEK places itself in fourth place in the table with 11 points. Olympiakos top the table on 16 points and beat Aris back 4-1 at Karaiskakis earlier this week. The Thessaloniki club were a Vladimir Darida strike in the 53rd minute from making it 1-2 but instead the home side stepped up and were huge in the last half hour of the game. However, Olympiakos showed that they are vulnerable in the defensive transition game. Rodinei was absolutely brilliant at right-back, Santiago Hezze was useful in midfield and Ayoub El Kaabi's crazy goalscoring form continues.
Second-placed PAOK on 13 points recorded a solid 3-0 win at home against Volos after Mbwana Samatta, among others, scored his first goal for the club. Panathinaikos, third in the table, won 1-4 away against Asteras Tripolis. An away game the greens from the capital have had a tough time in recent years. Two of the goals were scored by Fotis Ioannidis whose development curve over the last 12-18 months is sensational.
It is noteworthy that AEK and Panathinaikos both have one less game played than the other top competitors. Next, a new league round awaits at the weekend before our four representatives in the European group games this fall (AEK, Panathinaikos, Olympiakos, PAOK) go out and play round two of EL and UECL respectively on PAOK's behalf.
Newcomers Panserraikos have impressed in the opening rounds of the season. Coach Pablo García's team has surprised the vast majority and took this round a 3-2 victory against PAS Giannina. Left winger Kostas Pileas and hard-working striker Kosta Aleksic are two of several players who have impressed for the Serres club. The deadline for signing free agents is approaching (September 30) and Lamia has done so with the meritorious Russian playmaker Alan Dzagoev. The CSKA legend also shared the top scorer from Euro 2012 most recently from playing in Rubin Kazan.
Original article was published on http://SvenskaFans.com
@Mitsaras87A
Hellas Football
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