The Greek "El Classico" is over and Panathinaikos has managed to beat Olympiacos yet again, this time in Piraeus. Olympiacos was better for most of the match, but some good goalkeeping and Salpiggides' perseverence paid off and we made it 0-1 on '90 (Salpi gave the assist to Papadopoulos and he had no problem scoring).





It's a shame that despite our double triumph over our hated rivals this season we still have practically no chance of winning the league, as we're trailing by 8 points. At least we've taken a huge step in securing the second spot which leads to the Champions League qualifiers.

Underdogs Larissa have shocked Panathinaikos by claiming a 2-1 victory over Victor Munez's team to lift the Greek Cup.

George Donis's Larissa, who are locked in a relegation battle in the Greek Super League, seized the trophy thanks to goals from Joszef Kozlei and Henri Adsue which sandwiched a Dimitrios Papadopoulos penalty for Panathinaikos.

The triumph is Larissa's second in the Greek Cup - the first having come against PAOK in the 1985 final which the Thessalia club won 4-1.

Panathinaikos have been very disappointing to watch these last 3 seasons. Crap, actually. And now we've managed to miss out on a top 2 finish for the second time in a row. Panathinaikos fans are definitely not happy and most are asking for the owners to give up the team to someone who cares more about it. That won't happen though. They're businessmen and they realise the importance of owning one of the top teams in Greece.

As for the cup final, Donis (the Larisa coach) was a Panathinaikos player in the mid 90s. In fact, he was instrumental in our success in 1996, both in Greece and the Champions League (we reached the semis that year). So, i'm glad for his success and i hope he manages to save Larissa from relegation.

Our coach, Munoz, is on his way out of the club. The fans aren't really demanding he is sacked cause they realise he tried to do his best in a difficult situation, but the owners have to sack someone and it's usually the coach that goes in these situations.

Most fans feel that only 2-3 players deserve to stay in the team and are really upset that most of the squad don't seem to respect the team's history and rarely play with passion. Personally, i've stopped watching for a while now, it's just too painful (not to mention boring).

I really hope something gels in this team next season because they have given us fans enough sorrows. I mean, imagine if in a league where only 2-3 teams traditionally win the championship (Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and to a lesser degree AEK), your biggest rival and sworn enemy (Olympiakos) manages to win the last 10 out of 11 titles. Would you take it lightly?

There used to be a time when the Greek league was more competitive and fun, these days it's by far one of the most boring leagues you can watch. There was a time (the 90s) when Panathinaikos used to be a respectable team in Europe and every coach who played against us in the CL knew that. These days we're as bad as Olympiakos, which is truly the worst team to ever play in Europe.

Let's hope for better days...

Heh, I like greece football specially the things that happens on the stands. It's nice.

Amazing though that former Panathinaikos coach Hans Backe got sacked after four games, haha.

So, how does it go for Mikael Nilsson, swedish national player?

And is Rivaldo for AEK athens?

Yes I'm a proud Greek and I go for Panathinaikos and at the moment we haven't got the kennel of Olympacos or AEK we'll finish 3rd again.

Kennel?

It's true that most reporters give Olympiacos and AEK more chances to win the league, but i think we could do better this time.

It's true that we haven't done anything to improve our LB (Fyssas is back, but imo he's too old to make the difference) and RB positions and we also haven't bought a tall CF which could cost us as we don't have enough tall guys to head the ball in, but we made some cheap but decent additions in other positions:

GK: Malarz (he seems much better than Galinovic and Ebede)
CB: Sarriegi and Enakarhire (+ Siontis)
DM: Mattos (seems like a quality player to me)
AM: Karagounis (one of the 2-3 guys Panathinaikos fans wanted to see return to the team... his passion and love for the team will help us a lot)
RM: Ninis (not a new player, but he didn't have a full season last year, while this season a lot is expected of him and i think he can deliver)

So don't give up just yet. I think we could play some good football.

Huge shame but very understandable to see the Start to the new season postponed due to the raging fires that have so far claimed 41 Greek lives. I have been following the results, moves and live games on the internet of Olympiacos for years now but didn't post because there were no other Greek fans on the forum until i realised Marios! I have been to Greece many times and have picked up countless replica shirts of Olympiacos and hope to g to a game very soon indeed. Big shame that the huge game between Olympi and Pana tomorrow, i was very much looking forward to watching the game and seeing how the new signings fair this season. I have been impressed with the signings of Raul Bravo and Darko Kovacevic in particular and i hope that Lomana LuaLua can show himself to be more of an asset in the Greek League than for Portsmouth in the Premiership. I am confident we can compete strongly once again this season but AEK offer a threat as always and people in my view are writing off Panathanikos far too easily indeed - a terrible thing to do and our record against them recently has not been great.





I really have high hopes for him this season and i really hope that he can make a positive impact this season

This thread needs more Panatha fans, but it's nice to see non-Greeks following our crappy little league. lol

Yeah, the matches have been postponed and the death toll is unfortunately rising (53 now). Not sure when the matches will be played. Even when the fires are under crontrol, there will probably be an official period of mourning (probably next weekend) so it might be a while.

Olympiacos has signed bigger names, but imo Panatha could be this season's surprise package. We're considered 3rd favourites behind the champions and AEK, but i think we have a pretty solid squad. We're still outsiders for the title, but i'm not as pessimistic as i was the last 2 seasons.

I think that really is what is needed to help try to boost the reputation of the League. 1 or 2 names like Raul Bravo, Kovacevic etc to stop and make other players think..... hang on a second, maybe there is more to this league than people think. I mean even though Panathanikos haven't achieved a great deal in recent seasons they are still regarded as a massive club as well as Olympiacos, and AEK's reputation is growing outside of Greece so i think finally the League is growing. I thought Panionios might do the same as they flirted briefly with the Uefa Cup a few years ago, but that was as far as it got.

That seems to be the problem. Outside of Greece, sadly only Olympiacos, Panathanikos and now AEK are the only real clubs known from the country. Clubs like PAOK, Larissa, OFI, Aris etc just have no reputation whatsoever which makes people instantly dismiss the League as poor.

It wasn't always like that though. In the 70s and 80s teams like PAOK, Aris and Larissa were among the best in Greece, but the Athens clubs have more money so they've managed to survive and dominate the 90s and 00s.

To be honest, i watch the league and i think it's poor. And i'm not just saying that as a Panathinaikos fan, whose team seems past its old glories. The matches are not very interesting to watch and the teams are pretty weak overall. Hopefully, we'll see some better matches this season, but i'm not holding my breath.

As for European recognition, in the 90s and early 00s you could always count on Panathinaikos to do well in Europe (we reached the semis and quarters of the CL), but Olympiacos and AEK seem unable to copy our success. On the one hand i don't want to see them do well, but on the other hand their poor European performances are costing Greece valuable points. As for the smaller teams, i don't think they have what it takes to have a decent run in the UEFA Cup.

I agree. I watch a fair amount of Greek Football and it is not of a high standard - hence the lack of quality signings and Champions League runs in recent years.

When d you think the League will begin then?

And do you support the Cypriot national team mate?

If so being a Pana fan what are your opinions on the Legendary Michalis Konstantinou?!

I think the league should begin on the 8th of September at the latest, depending when the fires are under control and they don't keep finding burn victims.

Of course i support the Cypriot national team, but i also support the Greek team.

Konstantinou is hated by Panatha's fans because he declared his love and loyalty to the club saying he would sign a new contract and at the last minute left us to go to Olympiakos.

He's past his best though, so i don't really care about him.

Yeah i thought he mustn't be a popular figure after his departure. Is the same feeling felt from your fans towards Nikopolidis?

We hate him too, yes. But at least he provides some comic relief with his blunders.

He can be unreliable.

He can be unreliable.

It seems the Greek FA decided to have the games this weekend afterall (maybe there won't be an official period of mourning just yet, i dunno). These are the fixtures:

Sat:

Aris - Panionios
Xanthi - PAOK

Sun:

Asteras Tripolis - Larisa
Iraklis - Ergotelis
OFI - Apollon Kalamarias
Atromitos - Levadiakos
Panathinaikos - Olympiacos (21:15 local time --> 19:15 British time)

+
Wed: Veria - AEK

Very much looking forward to the derby game.

__Panathinaikos 0 - 0 Olympiakos__


One of the best 0-0 matches in recent memory, at least in the Greek league! The derby is over and the two rivals had to settle for a goalless draw, but the match was quite exciting and the ball was always moving up and down the pitch.

Olympiakos was better in the first half and PAO in the second, but overall the Piraeus team had better scoring opportunities. LuaLua hit the post, Galletti's shot went just wide and Torosidis missed from 2 feet with the goalie unable to get to him in time, after Stoltidis headed the ball into his feet. PAO's forwards (Papadopoulos and Mantzios) were disappointing and didn't manage to make the most of some nice passes they got from our very good midfield. Unfortunately, LuaLua (accidentally) injured our 2 best players in the match (Leontiou and Mattos) and they had to be subbed. Leontiou's injury was ugly. You could see his knee turning as he was falling to the ground, after the collision with LuaLua, so he will probably be out for a few games.

Man of the match was probably Galletti. The guy is quality. LuaLua, Leontiou, Karagounis, Mattos, Dimoutsos and Antzas were also very good. Kovacevic was good in the first 15 minutes but then not so much. PAO's keeper, Malarz, was very stable and i think he's going to be great for us. Ninis, our young star, didn't get much time on the pitch. He came in for Dimoutsos in the last 10 minutes and kept losing the ball easily, probably because he didn't have enough time to get into the flow of the game.

I hear these pundits on the radio and TV saying it was mostly an ugly game and not very entertaining, but i watched it in a public place with lots of people there and everyone seemed to enjoy it. As i said before, the ball was always moving, the teams had passion and tried to go for the 3 points instead of the draw (well, Olympiakos did play more defensively in the last 20 minutes) and the refereeing was mostly OK (however, he only added 3 minutes of extra time to the whole game, when there were at least 10).

You can see some highlights here (just scroll down to find the videos):
http://www.sport24.gr/html/ent/505/ent.194505.asp

Yeah the passion was clearly there from the start and i thought Olympiacos should have put the game to bed in the First Half. Very encouraging start indeed as you said from LuaLua he seemed to take to the style of Olympi fro mthe word go and looked like these had been his teammates for a number of years.