Hellas Football

 Freiburg vs Olympiakos: Europa League Group Stages Preview By Stephen Kountourou  Europa League Match Day Five: 30/11/23 Kick-off Time: 19:45 Greek Time Venue: Europa-Park Stadion  Where to Watch: Cosmote Sport 4 HD Do or Die As cliched as it sounds, the circumstances, in which Olympiakos find themselves in Group A of the Europa League, it is do or die. The objective is a simple, yet difficult one. If Thrylos wish to have any hope of progressing to the knockout stages of UEFA’s second competition they must beat Freiburg in Germany, something they were within seconds of doing last season in the group stages, only to concede late on to draw 1-1.  Defeat or a draw would eliminate them mathematically from finishing top two behind the Bundesliga side and West Ham, while still having 3rd place and the UEFA Conference League to secure over TSC Baka Topola. Manager Diego Martinez has a lot of work to do, before Thursday night's trip to Freiburg.   Last Time in the...

  Interview with Dimitra Giannakouli By Nikolas Fil I had the absolute honour to interview Panathinaikos women's team and Greek national women's team Goalkeeper Dimitra Giannakouli talking about her career, her debut against Portugal and women's football in our country.  How did you catch the football bug and say that this is what you want to do professionally? Did you have an idol growing up? "I had this footballing bug from a young age without even knowing it, I was constantly playing with the boys at school in every lunch break and every free time I had in my day, I had one important characteristic which was that I was not afraid of the ball so from then on I got the goalkeeper position. I joined a women's team in 2012 and since then I fell in love with it even more with its joys and sorrows and with whatever emotion this sport brings and I said this is what I want to continue doing as long as my soul and my body endure. From my childhood years my idol is Manuel...

 English Football’s Greek Revolution By Stephen Kountourou In recent times, there has been an influx of Greek players arriving to compete in one of the oldest football league pyramids in the world.  This is a testament to the quality of players Greece has produced recently, as the majority are currently important members of the Greek national team.  But who are these players, and how important are they for their club? Well, some of the names on this list speak for themselves.   Odysseas Vlachodimos: Nottingham Forest The German-born 29-year-old arrived at Forrest after a hugely successful five-year spell at Portugues giants Benfica, winning the Primera Liga and the Portuguese Super Cup twice respectively.  He also showed his quality on the European stage, after helping his side reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2022/23.  Vlachodimos arrived at Forest for a fee of £4.2 million which could rise to £8.1 million with add-ons. He had ...

Interview with Christiana Kiamou   By Nikolas Fil I had the opportunity to talk with Hellas Verona women's and Greek National team defender Christiana Kiamou.  We chat all things about women's football in Greece, her ambitions and goals and ways to make the women's game better in our country.  I want to thank Christiana for this opportunity and for the interview   How did you catch the football bug and say that this is what you want to do professionally? Did you have an idol growing up?   I don't think I caught this bug, I think I was born with it. My family is all about football and that helped me a lot in getting involved properly and seriously. I hadn't thought that I would do it professionally, I was very young and didn't know any other girls that played football or if there were teams. All these came much later. I didn't have any Football idol growing up.   Having played in Greece, Italy and Hungary, what is considered to be the problem in women's G...

West Ham United vs Olympiakos:  UEFA Europa League Group Stage Preview By Stephen Kountourou  Europa League Match Day Four: 09/11/23 Kick-off Time: 22:00 Greek Time Venue: The London Stadium  Where to Watch: Cosmote Sport 6 HD Last Time in the Europa League  A night where everything went right. Something that felt like it hadn't happened to Olympiakos for a long time in Europe. But on Match Day Three at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, that is exactly what happened. Thrylos, against Premier League side West Ham United, played the perfect game running out 2-1 winners in front of their home fans, who also put on an exceptional atmosphere.  A superb strike from Kostas Fortounis, a fortunate but important deflected effort from Rodinei just before half-time. The Hammers did give the home side a bit of a scare late on with a brilliant strike from Lucas Paqueta, but Olympiakos held on for a famous victory which gave their supporters the kind of night in Europe they ha...

 Checkmate from Lucescu's PAOK who triumphed at Karaiskakis By ANDREAS MITSIS PAOK travelled to Piraeus and demolished Olympiakos at Karaiskakis on Sunday evening. The victory numbers were written at 2-4 after two late reduction goals from the home team. PAOK and coach Razvan Lucescu took a heavy victory and hung on through the win to the other big clubs at the top of the league. In the last round, PAOK had an extremely smooth effort at Agia Sophia against the reigning champions AEK. This weekend saw a new summit meeting in the league and we got to witness a completely different PAOK. Not entirely unexpectedly, the team was hungry for revenge. They were responsible for a very careful effort at Karaiskakis against Olympiakos, which led to a 2-4 triumph. The Match PAOK have played strong matches away to Olympiakos in the last meetings between the teams at Karaiskakis (apart from the playoff last spring). Another such would be this November evening in Piraeus. Olympiakos' Daniel ...