Fans of Olympiacos were up for a night of thrill on Thursday, as the Piraeus team managed a very impressive victory, beating AC Milan 3-1 at the Karaiskakis stadium.
This outcome now allows Olympiacos to Piraeus to advance to the knock-out stages of the Europa League competition, being the only Greek team left in Europe after AEK also crashed out of the Champions League.
Olympiakos needed a 2-0 win to go through on a better head-to-head record, having lost 3-1 in Italy, but eventually matched the result of the game in Milan and went through on its superior overall goal difference.
After a first goalless hour’s play, Pape Abou Cisse opened the score with a header on the 60th minute. An own goal by Cristian Zapata gave the ‘reds’ their much needed second goal.
Zapata also got to score Milan’s only goal, just two minutes after his own misfortune.
Cnverting a penalty that Vassilis Torosidis had earned from Ignazio Abate, Costas Fortounis got to regain the two-goal margin, bringing ecstatic joy to the team’s fans.
The ‘reds’ are now positiones second in the group, with ten points, behind Real Betis, with Milan ranking third. Olympiacos will now enter Monday’s draw for the home-and-away Round of 32, to take place in February.
Meanwhile PAOK has ended up at the bottom of its group, with three points from six games, having experienced a devastating 3-1 home loss to BATE.
The Greek league leader needed a win by any score, as well as a Chelsea victory over Vidi in Budapest, but were unfortunate on both.
Vidi and Chelsea drew 2-2 while PAOK conceded three goals in the first half and was unable to respond after the interval.
Maksim Skavysh opened the score for the Belarusians after 18 minutes, followed by a second goal by Nikolai Signevich five minutes before half-time.
Aleksandar Prijovic scored PAOK’s single goeal on the 59th, but the team from Thessaloniki did not manage to find its pace after that, even when Signevich left BATE with 10 men on the 61st minute.
Cyprus football fans were left with mixed feelings on Thursday, following the Europa League games, as AEK Larnaca lost 1-5 to Bayer Leverkusen, while Apollon Limassol beat Marseille 3-1.