Hellas Football

CYPRIOT FIRST LEAGUE ROUND 22 REVIEW By Chrisos Mavromoustakos A disappointing derby, goal fests, late dramas and braces all heat up the round of 22 of the Cypriot First League as clubs look to grab their final places before the playoff rounds of the Championship Group and the Relegation Group. Nea Salamis v Apollon Coming into the match, Nea Salamis have had a bad slump of form, with their last win coming in the cup against Pafos FC on the 30th of January. Nea Salamis’ last league win was on the 12th of January. Apollon go into this match, with progression to the next stage of the cup and a few wins under their belt. A penalty miss and then a goal from Papoulis sealed an early goal, whilst 2 goals in 2 minutes for both sides evened out the contest, making it a 1-2 lead to Apollon. However, an 88th minute goal for Apollon ultimately sealed the match, resulting in Nea Salamis continuing their slump, and Apollon taking away a crucial 3 points. FT: 1-3 ———— Doxa...

Round 26 Preview – Battle for 6th By Greg Gavalas The Greek Super League heads into its last regular round in what, for the most part has been a successful season under the new format with playoffs around the corner. Whilst some of the table and teams are well aware of what lies ahead, the focus for this round is about who will keep, lose or steal 6th place in the standings which means that club will get the final ticket to the top 6 play offs, it will be a big achievement as, with Panathinaikos banned from European Competitions for one more season, this club would virtually secure that ticket to Europe. The four clubs battling for this spot – OFI (theirs to lose), Asteras (most in form of the group), Atromitos and Xanthi. All the games will be played on Sunday night in Greece with a 7pm kick off scheduled all around the motherland. SUNDAY Larisa vs Asteras Tripolis After showing some good form in 2019, Larisa’s 2020 was a train wreck with just 5 points in 9 ...

Dreamland for the Erythrolefkoi By Gavin Waymire Olympiakos pulled off the impossible, beating Arsenal 1-2 in London to progress to the Europa League Round of 16. Let’s take a look at how each player performed. Goalkeeper, José Sá: 7/10- Faultless throughout and always looked calm on the ball. Nothing the Portuguese stopper could have done to keep Aubameyang out. Left-Back, Kostas Tsimikas: 9/10- Another incredible performance from Olympiakos’ young star. Nothing got past him all night and he was always a menace down the left flank. Was unlucky not to score in the first half with a brilliant effort only denied by Leno. Center-Back, Ousseynou Ba: 8/10- A great performance from the Senegalese giant. Picked up a yellow for a clumsy challenge just outside the area in the first half, but was impenetrable throughout. Over two legs, Ba was fantastic. Center-Back, Pape Abou Cissé: 9/10- Stepped up in Semedo’s absence and put on an absolute blinder. Fantastic in defense all n...

It’s Not Impossible, But It’s a Very Tough Ask By Christian Leggas The first leg of this Round of thirty-two tie ended in a shattering one-nil defeat for Olympiacos at the hands of Arsenal. The Greek Giants gave it their all but unfortunately, that wasn’t quite good enough, as a late Alexandre Lacazette goal has given the Gunners a valuable upper hand going into the second leg. Olympiacos manager Pedro Martins did too praise his team for their level of competitiveness, but he also rued the chances that were passed up as well. Having seen the match, I concur with the Martins on this one. The most notable chance we passed up was undoubtedly the wayward header from Giorgos Masouras inside the first five minutes of the first half, the game on the night and the tie itself could have both had a very different look should that ball have ended up in the back of the net. To concede the way we did too was disappointing, I said it before the first leg, Bukayo Saka must be watched alo...

CYPRIOT LEAGUE ROUND UP: ROUND 21 By Chrisos Mavromoustakos This round provided goal fests, upsets, thrills and red cards. OMONIA V ENP The home side went into this game with two back to back draws, and a zeal to catch up to league leaders Anorthosis. ENP on the other hand, look to survive in this league, also coming into this game with a draw. That was no match for Omonia who dominated the game by three goals to nil. Derbyshire continues his hot streak, scoring the opener in six minutes. 10 shots would ensue within the first half for Omonia. ENP only had 6 shots, the same amount of shots on target that Omonia had. 2 late goals on the 82nd and 91st minute cemented victory for the home side in the capital. FINAL SCORE: 3-0 APOLLON V DOXA Apollon go into this game red hot, winning their last game, whilst Doxa go into the game with a draw, but still have their confidence running high. All attention was too the first half, where 4 goals were scored, 3 for A...

It Was a Gallant Effort, But It Wasn’t Enough By Christian Leggas In a tight battle all night, Arsenal managed to secure a slender but vital one-nil advantage going into the second leg of the tie thanks to a close range and tidy finish from Alexandre Lacazette. Olympiacos started very much on the front foot and created two wonderful chances to score within the first five minutes of the game. Mathieu Valbuena saw his semi-tame volley turned away by Bernd Leno, that spillage very nearly fell to the feet of Olympiacos attacker Giorgos Masouras, who not long after spurned a golden chance to put Olympiacos in the ascendency as his close-range header sailed over the crossbar after he was picked out superbly by Valbuena with a cross. Shortly after that Masouras blunder, the Gunners nearly made him and the home side pay the ultimate price as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang found himself in acres of space on the right flank, and his cross was millimeters away from the toes of Alexandre L...

Round 25 Preview – Round of Fire By Greg Gavalas The playoff system brought in this season where the top 6 play off for the title and the bottom 8 play out for relegation means most matches have a heavy bearing on them in Round 25 of the Greek Super League. Match of the round is none other than the much anticipated top of the table clash between PAOK and  Olympiakos  with the game scheduled for Sunday night at PAOK’s  Toumba stadium and the highest of security measured have been brought in and we hope to not see scenes from past seasons in Thessaloniki again. Saturday Asteras   Tripolis  vs Panathinaikos This is a big game for  Asteras  who have managed to go from 12 th  place earlier in the season to 7 th  now and fighting for that 6 th  spot which could mean European Football next season. The team from   Tripoli have shown the best from outside the top 5 but they now face a hard  task  against Pana...