Olympiacos, seems to have returned to victories after the derby against Panathinaikos. The Piraeus team defeated OFI with 4-0 at the “G. Karaiskakis” stadium in the opening match of the 22nd matchday, and awaits the tomorrow’s results of the top “trio” with the hope that it will be able to reduce the difference from “Dikefalos” (they play against each other in Toumba) and Panathinaikos.
The match took place under the watchful eye of Jose Luis Mendilibar, who immediately after his arrival went to the seaside stadium where he watched the match together with the president of Olympiacos FC, Vangelis Marinakis.
The Basque coach, Europa League winner last year with Sevilla, will be the new coach of the “red-and-whites” and immediately starts working to prepare the team for the match against Ferencvaros next Thursday, for the Conference League playoffs.
The hosts, who had their U19 coach, Sotiris Sylaidopoulos, as caretaker on their bench, started at a very high tempo from the first whistle of Tsimentidis and with the pressure they exerted, even on goalkeeper Baumann, they created an insurmountable problem in the circulation of the Cretans, resulting in the many mistakes in the transfers of OFI players, which cost dearly.
Just in the sixth minute and on a ball behind the defense, Baumann came out of his goal trying to clear the ball but sent it to Masouras, who took advantage of the opportunity and opened the scoring into an empty net.
Four minutes later, Fortounis made the turn from the right, the defenders failed to clear, and El Kaddouri scored from close range to make it 2-0, giving a clear advantage to his team, with his 13th goal (in total) in the red-and-white shirt.
Olympiacos continued to “drown” its opponent, possession reached 73 per cent, and in the 34th minute, from another defensive mistake in clearing the ball, it ended up outside the box to Podence, who progressed, dribbled past an opponent, and calmly placed it for 3-0.
With their minds now focused on the team’s European match, Sylaidopoulos made clustered substitutions to give breaks to Masouras, Esiti, Fortounis, and El Kaddouri, with the scorer of the fourth goal (Fortounis) giving his place to Camara, who made his debut in the red-and-white jersey.
“Three-pointer” for survival with 10 players for Panetolikos (1-0 against Atromitos)
Panetolikos scored their possibly most important victory in this season’s championship, prevailing 1-0 against Atromitos in Agrinio in the context of the 22nd matchday and making a leap in points to 18, leaving behind Volos and Kifisia.
On their part, the “blue-and-whites” suffered their fourth consecutive defeat and remained stuck at 23 points.
The game started with a good pace and a disallowed goal by Antzielski in the 2nd minute, as the Atromitos striker was offside when Robaig shot, before he took the rebound and scored.
Panetolikos took the lead in the 24th minute when from Peres’ vertical pass, Karelis broke from an offside position and scored the 1-0, beating Tsindotas, in a phase that was examined by VAR.
The advantage of the hosts came to “equalize” with Oikonomou’s expulsion six minutes later, who saw directly the red card from Papadopoulos for a very bad, unprofessional marking with his studs on Enter’s knee.
The results and scorers of the 22nd matchday in the Super League:
Olympiacos – OFI 4-0
(6′ Masouras, 10′ El Kaddouri, 34′ Podence, 58′ Fortounis)
PAS Giannina – Aris 0-0
Panetolikos – Atromitos 1-0
(24′ Karelis)
Kifisia – Volos NFC 11/2
Panserraikos – Panathinaikos 11/2
Lamia – Asteras Tripolis 11/2
PAOK – AEK 11/2
The standings (after 21 matches)
PAOK 50 points
AEK 48 points
Panathinaikos 47 points
Olympiacos 44 points (22 matches played)
Aris 35 points (22 matches played)
Lamia 30 points
Asteras Tripolis 29 points
Panserraikos 23 points
Atromitos 23 points (22 matches played)
OFI 20 points (22 matches played)
Panetolikos 18 points (22 matches played)
Volos 16 points
Kifisia 15 points
PAS Giannina 13 points (22 matches played)
