Greece with 5 teams in UEFA Cup - only 2 progress though

Larisa 2 - 0 Blackburn
AEK 3 - 0 Salzburg
Sochaux 0 - 2 Panionios
Aris 1 - 0 Zaragoza
Artmedia 1 - 2 Panathinaikos

And if Panathinaikos had a more solid central defence we wouldn't have allowed a rather silly goal and it would have been 5 clean sheets too!

The one Cypriot team left in the competition is Anorthosis and Spurs have destroyed them! a 6-1 hammering! They are my team's second biggest rivals here in Cyprus so i'm laughing about this result.

A great night indeed for Greek Football. Brilliant results particularly for Larissa against Blackburn and Aris against Zaragoza!

5 x 5 = 25 ?

Well done it was against good teams, you are sure that Panathinaikos has won ?

What do you mean am i sure?

because i've read that the score was 1-1 but may be i'm wrong.

Ah OK. In that case, yes, i'm sure.

N'Doye scored a late winner (1 minute into extra time).



Larisa are going to have a tough task when they visit Blackburn. Same goes for Aris, especially with only a 1 goal lead. Zaragoza has some quality players.

I'd be surprised if the other 3 teams didn't qualify though.

Sorry in France we have the score of 1-1 but i've seen that the score is 1-2.

I just thought you were making a joke or something. I was waiting for the punchline. lol

No, France Football has made a mistake, the score is always 1-1.

Panathinaikos beat Artmedia 3-0 on Tuesday and became the first Greek team to qualify, so far.

Right now, Larisa are up 1-0 against Blackburn and coupled with the home result (2-0) it should be enough to see them through, unless of course Blackburn finally decide to start fighting back. (EDIT: penalty for Blackburn, Kotsolis saves it, ref orders a re-take and Derbyshire makes it 1-1 -- of course, they still need to beat Larisa 3-0 in the second half alone to progress, so not an easy task) / EDIT 2: 2-1 for Blackburn now -- can they score 2 more without allowing any in the next 40 minutes?).

AEK's 3-0 home result against Salzburg should be enough to see them through, but for the moment they're down 1-0 in Austria. (EDIT: it ended 1-0 so AEK became the 3rd Greek team to qualify)

Panionios are losing 0-1 to Sochaux at home with 3 minutes to go. If the French score 1 more goal they can force the game into ET. (EDIT: it's over. Panionios are through to the next round)

Aris are losing 1-0 to Zaragoza and now the aggregate is level. I think Aris has the toughest task of all the Greek teams and i'll be surprised if they make it. (EDIT: Aris scored an equalizer!!!! It's now 1-1 with 25 more minutes to go! EDIT 2: Aaargh! Didn't even finish typing that and Zaragoza made it 2-1!)

So have Larissa won then? Or is it still going?

All 5 Greek teams have qualified for the group stage! Greece has now become the only country EVER to have 5 teams in the groups of the UEFA Cup!

The great thing about this is that we had slipped down to 18th in UEFA's rankings (16th after the first leg results) and this is going to be a huge boost for us. It doesn't mean all 5 teams will do well, but i think 2-3 of them should do OK.

A country like Ronania have managed to climb up to 5th with their good performances in the UEFA Cup (even surpassing Germany!), so with a bit of luck we could break into the top 10 again and not have to worry about the number of teams we're allowed to send to European competitions.

As for the rest of Europe, Germany has 4 clubs in the competition, while Spain, England, France and Russia have 3 each.

Panathinaikos grabbed their second win in the group stage, in Kopenhagen. Only 0-1 and they missed a penalty (which was a harsh decision by the ref), but it's the 3 points that count. N'Doye scored the goal.

Larissa lost 2-3 at home to Zenit and i'd say it's very difficult for them to qualify now.

Aris just scored a 3rd goal against Red Star Belgrade. Papazoglou opened the score after 77 minutes and then scored again in the last minute of regulae time. 1 minute into injury time Koke made it 3-0.

I think Panathinaikos will progress. AEK should also be OK. Aris has a tough task against Bayern and Bolton, but maybe they can do it. Panionios have a chance if they win their second game. I'd say Larissa are done, though.

Panathinaikos made it 3 in 3 tonight by beating Lokomotiv 2-0 (sorry Peter!). A draw against Atletico in the final match would secure us the top spot, but i'd be happy with 2nd place too.

AEK beat Mlada Boleslav away (0-1) and are now level on points (5) with Fiorentina, both trailing Villareal by 2.

Aris has 4 points from 2 games and i'd say they have a very good shot at going through.

Unfortunately, Panionios' and Larissa's campaigns are over.

Still, if AEK and Aris keep doing well and there are 3/5 Greek teams in the next round i'd say it's not too bad.

2 surprising results yesterday.

I can't believe that Aris didn't manage to grab the win against Braga. They had a few chances to do so, so drawing was a disappointment since it now means that they have to at least DRAW in Munich to qualify.

I'd be surprised if Bayern and Bolton didn't qualify, after this new development.

On the other hand, Panionios revived their hopes of qualification after winning away at Austria Wien. They now have to beat Bordeaux at home and that would see them through. Bordeaux are already guaranteed top spot in the group, so they might not even bring their first team to play in Greece, so i'd say Panionios can take 3rd spot or possibly even 2nd.

Now, we put our hopes on Larissa. Take a point or three, guys, so as not to finish with a zero and to help our Zenit to qualify. No doubt, there will be a lot of Russians supporting Larissa against Nuremberg.

I hope Larissa wins so Greece get a few more points and move closer to 14th place in UEFA's rankings.

Embarrassing performances by Aris and Panionios tonight.

Aris lost 6-0 in Munich. First 4 goals by Luca Toni and Aris' keeper was responsible for all of them. This means that Bolton and Braga (who have a point more) are now through.

Panionios had a 2 goal lead at home against Bordeaux and managed to lose 2-3. This means that they finish with 4 points, same as Galatasaray who have qualified as 3rd in the group since they beat Panionios.

Both teams are now out of the competition. They follow Larissa's early exit.

Only Panathinaikos have qualified so far (we'll know tomorrow if they also manage to top the group, but getting a result against Atletico away is not going to be easy).

AEK have a tough task tomorrow against Villareal (even if it is a home game), but the only way they might be in trouble is if Mlada beats Fiorentina, which is not very likely.

I said earlier that 3 out of 5 would be a good outcome for Greek teams and i stand by that. 2 out of 5 is disappointing, but expected i guess.

Panionios is out of UEFA Cup and Galatasaray will go on. They eliminated themselves in Bordeaux game. Galatasaray tied with Austria Wien in a scoreless match but Panionios gifted his qualify chance to Galatasaray after they are ahead of 2-0 against Bordeaux, lost the game at the end of the match 2-3. Thank You Greece If I were chairman of Panionios i would probably sack manager.

Yeah, it must be embarrassing to be a Panionios fan right now.

I can't believe they beat us (Panathinaikos) a few days ago. They literally played defence for 90 minutes and scored on the single chance they had.

If i was a Panionios fan and saw that 3rd goal go in 4 minutes before the end of the game i would start hitting my head on the wall.

As you said, a great gift for Galatasaray, but no need to turn this into a national thing. We've been there before and i thought we decided to avoid that in the future.