The most memorable moments in Greek football this season

By Stephen Kountourou

As we like to say on Hellas Football, Greek football is the gift that keeps on giving. It is capable of the biggest shocks, passionate fan bases and some of the greatest stories ever told in the history of the beautiful game. But there are always two sides to every coin. 

There have been embarrassing results, accusations of corruption, sometimes the unorganised and incompetent governing bodies and clubs, owners running onto the pitch with a gun in a holster, and managers fighting in underground car parks. Being a Greek football fan is certainly a rollercoaster. 

But, thankfully, we are only focusing on the positives. As we wave goodbye to the 2024/25 season, we can reflect on the exciting moments, some surprise package teams, cup runs, emerging talent, famous European nights, and big victories for the Ethniki

So while this blog is very much my own opinion, and I will inevitably miss some, feel free to tell me your favourite moments.

Here is my list of the most memorable moments in Greek football this season.

Levadiakos, the surprise package

Starting with Levadiakos, the general expectation for the newly promoted side, myself included, is that they would be nothing more than their usual relegation fodder and go straight back down to the second tier with a whimper at the end of the season. Thankfully, I and many others were proved wrong. 

The side from Levadia under manager Nikos Papadopoulos, as they all but comfortably secured their status in the Greek top flight even before the playoffs began. 

Players such as Zini, Alen Ozbolt, Triantafyllos Tsapras, just to name a few, have all had excellent seasons for the Blue-Greens as they took points off of Olympiakos, AEK and Aris. The biggest turning point of the season for them was a comeback 2-4 victory over fellow newly promoted side Athens Kallithea, which included a second-half hat-trick for Zini. 

With Nikos Papadopoulos signing a deserved extension, and if they can keep their stars while adding more quality to their squad, Levadiakos has the potential to be one of the most entertaining sides outside of the big 5 next year and could aim to finish in the UEFA Conference League playoff group.

Aris’s early title charge

This one is perhaps more bittersweet for Aris fans. The perennial 5th-best team in Greece, the Thessaloniki side, early in their campaign looked like they might show signs of a potential title challenge. Kitrinomavro defeated both Olympiakos and local rivals PAOK as well as earning a point against Panathinaikos in OAKA. 

They spent four weeks top of the table between matchday 8 and 11 while boasting some quality individual players, including one of the league's top scorers, Loren Morón, Monchu, one of the top assisters and goalkeeper and captain Julián Cuesta, who was joint second for clean sheets. 

Their patchy midseason form, however, meant that Aris dropped out of title contention with then-manager Akis Mantzios being shown the door in favour of fellow Greek manager Marinos Ouzounidis. 

After narrowly missing out on the championship playoffs, Aris settled for a comfortable 5th place, as expected, and a place in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers, unless OFI wins the Greek Cup.

Olympiakos run to the title

Now, this one obviously won’t be to everyone's taste, but it is hard to deny the impressive way Olympiakos claimed their 48th title this season. Under Jose Luis Mendilibar, the Piraeus side did not just play the best football, but they also had the strongest mentality, which can be highlighted in their derby record, which Olympiakos had struggled with in the last couple of seasons. Under the Basque coach, however, Thrylos won nine out of 12 games against the other big four teams in the league, drawing twice and only losing once. 

Thrylos, after a slow start to the season, eventually gathered momentum, with the turning point being the 2-3 victory away to PAOK in Toumba, which was one of the catalysts in starting their title charge. 

Speaking of that game, this highlights another reason why the 100-year season has been all the more impressive: the kids. 

The best player on the pitch in that game, Babis Kostoulas, and fellow academy graduate Christos Mouzakitis have been allowed not only to feature sparingly but also became mainstays in the starting lineup throughout the campaign. 

Goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis in goal, who established himself as the number one when Mendilibar arrived last season and has kept 16 clean sheets in the league this season and 22 in all competitions and Panagiotis Retsos, who took the captaincy after Kostas Fortounis left Piraeus, and has been a real leader on and off the pitch.

In short, Olympiakos has done something they have not done in the modern era: give academy and domestic players a real opportunity to shine for the first team. These aforementioned players have become the core of the team while also being surrounded by experienced foreign players like Rodinei, Ayoub El Kaabi, Gelson Martins and Dani Garcia and talented foreign players of a similar age bracket, such as Santiago Hezze, Lorenzo Pirola, Costinha and Francisco Ortega. 

Put it all together, with an extremely pragmatic, tactically astute and man-managing head coach in Mendilibar, and you have an Olympiakos that can beat anyone on their day while playing good football and are likeable and identifiable with fans' expectations.

Greece’s emerging talent

This one semi relates to the mentioned younger Olympiakos players, but more of an observation of the emerging talent from Greek football as a whole. I wrote an article a few months ago about the players Greece has stumbled upon that are not only capable of being good level players, but could go on to all have top level careers, such is their potential.

Mouzakitis, Kostoulas and Tzolakis are the current pride of Olympiakos’s academy system, but then there is also PAOK graduate Giannis Konstantelias, who has been one of the standout talents in the Super League for a couple of years now. 

Georgios Vagiannidis, who has now established himself at Panathinaikos as their main right back and is almost certainly taking over from Lazaros Rota for the national team. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Former PAOK academy players, Kostas Koulierakis and Christos Tzolis, are having strong breakout seasons in the Bundesliga and the Belgian Pro League, respectively. 

Christos Mandas is slowly staking his claim to be Lazio’s number one keeper in Serie A, Christos Zafeires just won the league with his team, Slavia Praha, and Stephanos Tzimas and Georgios Koutsias have the potential to be the main strikers for the Ethniki long term. But the crown jewel of this new generation is undoubtedly Konstantinos Karetsas. 

The 17-year-old, who chose Greece over Belgium, the country of his birth, has already shown in one and a half games for the national team that he has the potential to be one of the finest players in Europe, even at such a tender age. This is the kind of player that Ethniki fans have not seen, maybe ever. 

It has been very exciting this season to see all these players already showing what they are capable of for the clubs, and during the Nations League playoffs in March, when they played together. We could be in for a fun decade of football following Greece, after over 10 years of hurt.

OFI’s run to the Greek Cup final

For the first time in exactly ten years, a team from outside the Big Five reached the Greek Cup final. OFI made their long-awaited return, having not featured since 1990 or since winning the competition in 1987.

Under Milan Rastavac, who was sacked at Asteras Tripolis early in the season and replaced Trianos Dellas at OFI, the Cretan side avoided playing the big five teams in the knockout stages on route to the final. That's not to say their run was a simple one. Under Dellas, to start with, OFI entered the fourth round of the competition, and they had to come back from a goal down to knock out Panetolikos 2-1. 

Once Rastavac took over, they then played their round of 16 against Volos. The Cretans nearly capitulate their aggregate advantage from a 3-1 win in the first leg, to trailing 1-0 in the second, with Volos only needing one more goal to level the tie. 

OFI managed to hold and progress. The quarter finals were much more straightforward. Their opponent, second division side Panachaiki, was thrashed 7-1 over two legs. The semi-finals saw Rastavac face off against his former club, and knock them out 2-1 over two legs on aggregate.

With a good blend of Greek and foreign players, including Fountas, Sacedo, Nuss, Shengelia and co, OFI now had the prospect of facing newly crowned Greek champions Olympiakos, in a repeat of the 1990 final.

Sadly for OFI fans, history repeated itself, and the dream of the final did not end in glory for the Cretans. The occasion seemed to overwhelm them early on, which Olympiakos capitalised on with an early strike from Ayoub El Kaabi. Despite the best efforts of Nikos Christogeorgos in goal, OFI could not stave off the pressure from the Piraeus side to find an equaliser, and in added time, substitute Roman Yeremcuk scored in added time. 

Although OFI were unable to end their trophy drought after 35 years, their fans in OAKA, singing from well before the game through to the end, showed how much it meant that their team reached the Greek Cup final. It was a real celebration of football, where both clubs' supporters could attend at a high capacity with no incident ruining the occasion.

Invincible Larissa

We have always spoken about a wish for historic clubs, who have since fallen down the Greek football pyramid, to find a way back to the top flight. Well, Larissa came storming back after four years away from the Super League. 

Under the recently departed manager Alekos Vosniadis, the Crimons went the entire Super League 2 campaign unbeaten, winning 20 and drawing six, which has never been done in the second division. This was thanks largely to boasting the top scorer in the league this season, Giannis Pasas, who rolled back the years aged 34 and scored 24 goals in 25 games.

While not as notable an achievement, AEL added a second trophy on the final day of the season as they squared off, as northern group champions against southern group champions, and fellow newly promoted side, Kifisia, in the Greek Super Cup 2. A late goal from defender Dimitrios Stamou gave the Crimons a bit more shine in their promotion season. 

Alekos Vosniadis, after a hugely successful campaign, left the club, with his replacement being Georgos Petrakis, a younger coach with less experience than his predecessor. This will do little to dampen Larissa fans' spirits, however. The only team to win the Greek first division outside of the big five clubs is finally back in the top flight, and they will be expected to maintain their place there for as long as possible.

Greek clubs' results in Europe

Perhaps this particular topic would have been better for last season. Olympiakos won the UEFA Conference League, PAOK reached the semi-finals, and even Panathinaikos and AEK had some famous nights in the Europa League. 

Even with all that being said, it was still a positive time for Greek clubs in Europe. Although only three of the big four reached the league phases of the Europa League and Conference League, all three had memorable moments that their supporters can look back on. 

Starting with Olympiakos, Mendilibar's men finished top seven in UEFA's secondary competition, qualifying directly for the round of 16, with famous victories over FC Porto and Malmö away, as well as Braga at home. They had the best defence in the Europa League, and Ayoub El Kaabi, at the time of writing, is still one of the joint top scorers in the competition this season. 

They may have been well beaten 3-0 in Norway by Bodo Glimt, which would be the catalyst for Thrylos to bow out of Europe, but a crucial 2-1 win back in Piraeus was vital in the new Greek champions securing the UEFA Champions League League Phases next season.

Panathinaikos themselves enjoyed some exciting European nights, including a 2-0 over French side Lens in a victory which turned their playoff tie into the Conference League Phase. 

Prasini fans can also reflect on the way they recovered their European campaign in the second half of the league phase to reach the playoffs, and afterwards, the round of 16, where they faced off against Fiorentina. 

A 3-2 victory in OAKA was probably their best of the season, and despite losing in Florence and exiting the competition, PAO got their first real taste of European knockouts in a very long time.

Lastly, PAOK, which qualified for the Europa League, had a more disappointing European campaign than the other two teams, but still had moments of its own. They, too, like Panathiniakos, had a slow start to the League Phase but fought back to gain a playoff spot. The most noteworthy results were a 5-0 smashing of Ferencvaros and a 2-0 against Slavia Praha, both at Toumba.

All three teams helped contribute to the Greek coefficient, and at the end of the season, Greece now sit in 12th place, narrowly behind Norway in 11th. They were still able to continue building towards the ultimate aim of trying to crack the top ten leagues in the UEFA coefficient. 

Ange Postecoglou winning a major European trophy

This one had to be included. How could it not? After a poor Premier League campaign, which included a record of defeats, and languishing in lower mid-table, Ange Postecoglou guided Tottenham Hotspur to the UEFA Europa League title. The Greek Australian manager became the first coach from both nations to lift a major piece of European silverware, while also ending Spurs’s 17-year trophy drought and a 41-year wait for a European honour.

Ange and his players navigated through the League Phase, finishing fourth and qualifying directly to the round of 16. The Lilywhites narrowly overcame AZ Alkmaar before squeezing past Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals. A semi-final against the surprise package of the tournament, Bodo Glimt, awaited them, but Tottenham comfortably progressed past the Norwegian side to reach their first European final since 2019. 

Spurs faced fellow Premier League strugglers Manchester United in a winner-takes-all bout to qualify for the Champions League. 

Despite an injury crisis in midfield, Postecoglou opted to play a low block, counter-attacking style against United and, in an admittedly poor game of football, his tactics paid off. A scrappy goal from Welsh international Brennan Johnson just before half time, and a heroic goal line clearance from Micky van de Ven, ensured that the North London side and Postecoglou claimed victory on an unforgettable night for their supporters in Bilbao.

After all the criticism, scrutiny and doubt pleased a coach who has found success at almost every club he has worked at previously, Ange Postecoglou, was well and truly vindicated and proved that he is a good manager and one that should never be underestimated.

Greece conquers England and Scotland

The best has been saved for last, and these two games will live long in the memory. 

It was a surreal day when Greece defeated England 1-2  on a historic night at Wembley Stadium. Supporters and the players were still in shock after the passing of Panathinaikos and English-born Greek international, George Baldock, less than 24 hours prior.

But the Ethniki dug deep, played their hearts out for their fallen teammate and defied the odds against one of the best teams in the world. Jovanovic’s men soaked up the onslaught of pressure from England's attack and countered efficiently. 

The scoreline did not reflect the outstanding performances, with three goals ruled out for offside throughout the course of the game. It was the first time Greece had ever beaten the Three Lions, the first time Greece ever won at Wembley, and the Ethniki ended England's long unbeaten run at home. 

It was also the first time Greece had defeated a nation placed in the top five of the FIFA World Rankings, since the Ethniki beat France in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004. 

Every goal, every tackle, every clearance and the celebrations at the end with the joyous away supporters were all dedicated to George Baldock. 

As someone who had the privilege of watching such a miracle unfold, amongst the ultras banging drums and blowing trumpets and singing songs, it was one of the best and most emotional football experiences I had ever had. 

The 0-3 victory against Scotland in Hampden Park was a defining moment for Greece, but in a very different way. It represented the future of the national team and what our talented youngsters coming through are capable of when they all play together. 

After a close but disappointing first leg in Piraeus, with Greece trailing 0-1 thanks to a rather soft penalty, Ivan Jovanovic made the bold but necessary choice of making multiple changes to the starting lineup, which would end up being one of the youngest XI’s in the history of the national team.  

Every player on the pitch knew their role and carried out Jovanovic’s plan like clockwork. Tzolakis seemed to finally establish himself as the Ethniki’s number one in goal, the centre back pairing of Kourleriakis and Mavropanos cancelled out any threat from Scotland's attack, as did the fullbacks of Giannoulis and Vagiannidis. 

The biggest unsung heroes, Mouzakitis and Zafiris, complemented each other despite never starting together before. Even the captain on the night, Vangelis Pavlidis, while he did not score, showed real leadership and contributed well as one of the more experienced heads on the pitch. 

But the true stars were the attacking trio of Konstanelias, Tzolis and Karetsas, who ran riot in Scotland, with all three scoring and the former assisting the latter two to earn a deserved man of the match award.

If the England win was the wake-up call to the rest of the footballing world that Greece can pull off a miracle, the victory against Scotland further cemented that the Ethniki are not only a force to be reckoned with, but one that has the potential to be one of the most dangerous dynamic and talented national teams for many years to come. 

Hellas Football

@SteveKountourou