Paniliakos FC

Paniliakos FC Fan Blog

Fernando Santos has lead Greece to the quarter-finals of the 2012 Euro’s and the nation is now headed to their 2nd consecutive World Cup. The Portuguese coach is demonstrating as time passes by why he was selected to replace the previous coach Otto Rehhagel in 2010.

Throughout the entire managerial career of Santos, he has coaches a number of clubs from Portugal and Greece including some such as: Benfica, Panathinaikos, Porto and Sporting CP.

Olympiakos manager Michel Gonzalez says that the troubles faced by their Champions League opponents Manchester United could be a huge burden on the club in the European matches. United will be taking on the Greek outfit Olympiakos looking to progress to the quarter-finals. Last season, they failed to get past the last 16 stage after being knocked out by Real Madrid.

Progression this time around is far more important after their failings in all competitions since the arrival of David Moyes. Only their Champions League performances have been of some worthy.

The defeat in the Champions League match against the Greek Club Olympiakos yesterday has upset the Manchester United owners and there have been reports that if the performance of the team deteriorates even more in the remaining part of the season, they might opt for a different manager in the summer.

Greek football has welcomed Darren Ambrose as the new major signing after the Birmingham city midfielder made the move to Apollon Smyrni.

The 29-year-old has played for the likes of Crystal Palace in the past, but he has been out of favour at Birmingham since the move in 2012. He moved to the St Andrews two years ago on a two-year contract, but he has made just 10 appearances during this period. He will leave the club immediately on a loan deal to Athens, which will last till the end of the season.

AEK Athens, or popularly known as its nickname Queen, is one of the top 4 football clubs in Greece with current league champs Olympiacos, PAOK FC and Panathinaikos FC being the rest. Previous season was a total disaster for AEK Athens both outside and inside the field.

PAOK Salonika has defeated the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa in a Europa League match played at Toumba Stadium on Friday. PAOK won the match by a close margin of 3-2.

This was the second win for PAOK in the ongoing Europa League. With this win, they took their points tally to 7 in 3 matches and they are now at the top of the Group L points table.

PAOK hadn’t got off to a good start in the match against Haifa. They were down by 2 goals at one point of time, but, they came back in style and eventually managed to grab 3 points.

Greek champions Olympiakos have been signing a few strikers already in this transfer window, and they have added young Arsenal striker Joel Campbell to their squad. The striker has moved to the Greek club on a season-long loan deal after failing to establish himself in the first team of the Premier league outfit.

Arsenal have confirmed that the youngster will be looking to get some first team experience before returning to the Emirates stadium. The Costa Rican has been at Arsenal for the last two years, but he has been on loan at various clubs like Real Betis and Lorient.

PAOK, who finished as the runners up in the Greek super league last season, have managed to bring in Dutchman Huub Stevens as their new coach for next season.

The 59-year-old will be arriving in Greece next week and will be formally signing a new contract. The Dutchman is a very experienced manager, who will be looking to win the league title with PAOK next season. The 59-year-old as managed the likes of Schalke in his several years as a manager. Giorgos Georgiadis managed to lead the side successfully into the play-offs after replacing Giorgos Donis, who departed in April.

The former Sevilla manager Michel has been appointed as the new Olympiakos manager after the team suffered only their first league defeat of the season.

Olympiakos have been one of the best teams in the Greek football over the last few years. They are unsurprisingly top of the table, but they recently suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Atromitos. After having taken the decision to appoint Michel as the new manager of the team, the board did not take long to announce the appointment officially. The 49-year-old will be taking charge of the team hoping to get them to title success.

The Panathinaikos club president Giannis Alafouzos has criticised the decision taken by the Greek football Association to name the referee Stavros Mantolos for the upcoming derby match against Olympiakos Pireaus.