Paniliakos FC

Paniliakos FC Fan Blog

Pedro Martins will be relieved man after Olympiakos have been able to avoid PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League qualification rounds. The draw for the second round of the qualification campaign for Europe’s premier competition took place recently at Nyon. Olympiakos were quite nervous about this, as there was a significant possibility of coming up against Dutch outfit PSV, who have a lot of strength in the ranks. Now, Olympiakos will face Viktoria Plzen. After finishing as the runner-up in the Super League, Olympiakos have been able to graduate from the group stages by beating AC Milan.

The Dutch powerhouse would have been a formidable opponent for Olympiakos, who have not been able to reach the group stages of the Champions League in two out of the last three campaigns. The team did feature in the 2017-18 group stages when they were paired up against powerhouses like Juventus and Barcelona. The second leg of the Champions League qualifiers will be a two legged affair that will start on July 23/24. The first leg will be in Czech Republic and this will be followed by the game in Greece.

Arsenal are set to make a sensational signing of PSG prodigy Christopher Nkunku according to reports. According to French tabloid L’Equipe, Arsenal have agreed a deal that would see Nkunku join the club this summer.

Nkunku is also a target for Greek side Olympiakos as several clubs are interested in snapping the highly rated forward.

Mady Camara might be on his way to England this summer as Watford has been knocking on the door and the 22-year old is believed to have taken a fair bit of interest in the offer. However sources close to him say that he is yet to take the final call and will take it once he completes his national duty at the upcoming AFCON.

It’s been only a season that Camara has been at Olympiakos and he has done enough to draw attention from different clubs across the globe. Watford is not the only club chasing him, but there are a couple others as well which are desirable to have the services of the young playmaker.

Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is confident that the Gunners can make the top four despite suffering a 1-0 defeat to Everton on the road last weekend. The north London side are currently three points behind the fourth position occupied by Chelsea but they have the advantage of two games in hand over the west London outfit.

In an interview covered by Sky Sports, Sokratis acknowledged that the Gunners were outclassed by the Toffees in the recent away meeting. Nonetheless, the central defender remains optimistic about the club’s top four prospects and believes four wins from the remaining six matches should achieve their objective, he said: “We didn’t win a lot of battles. We conceded a goal that is a little bit easy and lost the game. But we are looking forward. We know that we have to win at least two games at home and two games away. We need to win at least four games. In the end, we will see if we are there.”

Olympiakos’ match against Panathinaikos has been called off due to the home supporters clashing with police and also attacking the players. Panathinaikos were taking on Olympiakos in the match at OAKA Stadium but there was a major setback in this Greek Super League encounter. After just four minutes into the Athens derby, Panathinaikos supporters invaded the pitch and started attacking the opposition players – even those on the bench. The referees decided to temporarily halt the match for around eight minutes before it was resumed. However, police were unable to control the violence even then and it spilled to the outside of the stadium.

The violence in the match increased especially after Olympiakos came up with the only goal of the game in the 53rd minute. Miguel Angel Guerrero was able to come up with the breakthrough and this angered the home fans and even further. Police had to resort to using teargas in order to disperse the home supporters. As the teargas spilled onto the pitch, it started affecting the players. Referee Marco Fritz had no option but to abandon the match after 70 minutes. Panathinaikos had to end up on the losing side since Olympiakos were leading when the game was halted. Olympiakos were handed with three points, while Panathinaikos could now face a fine and a potential points deduction.

Greece sees Future of National Side in the highly rated teenager Christian Vassilakis. It has been reported that the Greek Football Federation is trying to snap the star from Real Madrid, Vassilakis who has been in a great form for the Real Madrid juniors in the European Under-19 qualification Elite Round which is going to be held in March. The HFF is attempting to get past the required paperwork to include the 18-year-old striker in the squad of the team. Christian Vassilakis, popularly known as Vassi, qualifies for Greek nationality although he is a Valencia-born forward via his grandfather. This highly rated teenager has bagged around 500 goals in the set – up of Valencia before getting in the Real Madrid last season.

Dynamo Kyiv and Olympiakos were almost inseparable in the first leg of the Europa league last 32 match after playing out a 2-2 draw at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskáki.

Dynamo Kyiv entered into the match hopeful about picking up something from the match that would give them confidence ahead of the return leg at home. It was exactly the case with the team managing to score from both the shots on target in the match.

Ivory Coast international Yaya Toure has hinted about the possibility of joining Celtic in the near future. The 35-year-old is currently a free-agent after terminating his contract with Olympiakos and he has now revealed that he is eyeing one more season at the highest level in either Scotland of England.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Toure joked that his brother Kolo has urged him to take up a new challenge with the Scottish champions. He added that nothing has been decided yet regarding his future, though he would like to hold a meeting with manager Brendan Rodgers to find out whether the Hoops can offer him a contract.

Former Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has hinted that he may be returning to the Premier League after cutting short his spell with Greek outfit Olympiakos. The 35-year-old moved to the Greek club only in the summer, but he has cut short his time back in December through mutual consent. The club were actively seeking a solution in order to reduce the wage bill, as they have been facing a lot of financial issues over the last year. As one of the highest paid players in the squad, Toure was a major burden on the club and they have decided to part company.

Toure has been heavily linked with a move back to English football where he had a tremendously successful time with Manchester City. He almost single-handedly helped with the club win several titles before being ultimately frozen out of the first team since Pep Guardiola came to the team.

Former Liverpool defender John Arne Riise claims that Liverpool need to bring back the atmosphere that Anfield fans provided in the match against Olympiakos in order to get them past Napoli in the upcoming group match. Liverpool have a very tough group game and the Reds need to win this match in order to progress into the last 16. After the 2-1 defeat against PSG in the recent group match, Liverpool have been pushed to the third spot. Over the years, Liverpool have produced some incredible results at home in the Champions League. John Arne Riise was part of the team that famously overcame Olympiakos in 2004 and it went on to lift the title under the stewardship of Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool require a two-goal victory in order to secure qualification and this occurs 14 years after Liverpool were able to come up with a remarkable comeback against Olympiakos. Jamie Carragher was also part of the squad that achieved the incredible comeback and he has said that it is not on the players alone. He says that supporters also have a crucial role to play in such impressive results. Liverpool ended up meeting Olympiakos 3-1 in this fixture and they went on to beat AC Milan on penalties and lifted the fifth major European Cup.