Derby Night in Thessaloniki Tainted by Disappointment

By: Peter Katsiris | March 9th, 2009

There were plenty of expectations ahead of PAOK’s derby date with Olympiacos on Sunday, but the arrival of the final whistle at the Toumba Stadium came with a dose of disappointment as the top two clubs in the Greek Super League played to a 0-0 draw in Thessaloniki.

Olympiacos had come away with a midweek win over PAOK in the Greek Cup to end their opponents’ campaign, while extending their own to progress to the semi-finals and a step closer to repeating as Greek Cup Champions. Manager Ernesto Valverde will likely feel his side should have collected a similar result on Sunday, but there were no heroics on tap for Olympiacos or PAOK, for matter.

The match was delayed by sometime after clashes between PAOK fans and riot police saw authorities use teargas to fend off rioters who hurled mainly water bottles and rocks at police. Players themselves were also targeted as the Olympiacos team bus was victimized as the players exited, and the ‘Erythrolefki’ faced the same obstacles while training on the pitch.

Although the violence had escalated enough to see fans leave the stands and come to the field to avoid the brutality of the attacks from tear gas, all was forgotten with kick-off.

Once the game was able to start, the just over 22 000 capacity crowd made for some memorable images in the stands.

As a fiery cloud taking over the stands, the match finally began with Olympiacos grabbing the first chance of the match through Giannis Papadopoulos. The former Iraklis midfielder nearly made his second start of the season an impressive one with Kostas Chalkias forced to give up a corner on four minutes.

PAOK had their first chance to break the deadlock just three minutes later with Sotiris Balafas firing a shot towards the Olympiacos net. The effort lacked the appropriate accuracy and Antonis Nikopolidis was left untested.

The next wave of attack from PAOK surely made Nikopolidis work hard to keep his clean sheet. Ibrahim Bakayoko collected the loose ball after a centering pass from Olivier Sorlin, and after turning his was into an optimum position to score, Bakayoko looked certain to score until Nikopolidis made a phenomenal save to deny the Ivorian Coast striker.

Three minutes later, Oscar Gonzalez had the chance to give the visitors a cruel lead on PAOK, but the Spaniard was unable to provide an effort as dynamic as Bakayoko’, or enough to beat Chalkias.

Just when urgency appeared to impose itself on the match, neither side was able to escalate the tempo of the match. Several mistakes at either end of the pitch saw defences stand superior to attacks that embarrassingly ended with bad turnovers.

Still, despite the horrible display of football near the tail end of the first half, Oscar, again, had a chance to give his side the lead with an effort on forty-one minutes. The former Real Zaragoza man was in the right position to send Olympiacos ahead just before the half, but his try was routinely collected by an unfazed Chalkias.

The opening minutes of the first half had set fans up for disappointment with the quality of football, or lack thereof, in the latter part of the first half.

Olympiacos’ side featured usual substitutes, namely Papadopoulos, but the Greek starlet looked to be brewing a solid showing in absence of several Olympiacos regulars. Also feeling the wrath of suspensions, PAOK’s Fernando Santos was forced to shuffle his line-up, but throughout the first half, a familiar face, Bakoyoko, was the visitor’s promising target in attack.

The second half opened with Zlatan Muslimovic nearly putting PAOk ahead on forty-eight minutes, but brilliant defending from Avraam Papadopoulos kept the match level as he denied the Bosnian an early second half strike.

A wasteful Olympiacos continued to let chances go beckoning for a finish as Oscar ‘s cross on fifty minutes was allowed to fall out of bounds as Konstantinos Mitroglou failed to connect with the Spaniard.

On sixty-one minutes, Olympiacos’ chances took a severe blow when Konstantinos Mendrinos was shown his second yellow card of the night; reducing Ernesto Valverde’s militia to just ten man for the remaining half hour.

PAOK looked to take advantage of their strength in numbers almost immediately through Portuguese attacking midfielder Vierinha; however, Nikopolidis easily denied the former FC Porto man.

The next attack from Olympiacos came on seventy-eight minutes, and it was their best of the night despite being reduced to ten men. Michal Zewlakow enjoyed a rare venture into the attacking end and shuffled a slick pass over to Giannis Papadopoulos. The former U-19 Greece international rattled the crossbar with his effort with the rebound falling to compatriot Mitroglou, but the youthful Greek striker failed to leave his mark on the match with his header flashing just wide of Chalkias’ goal.

Blowing a perfect chance to take the lead, and under circumstances wasting a chance to win the game, it looked like Olympiacos was headed for a third week without a Super League win.

Lambros Choutos, a former Olympiacos player himself, looked to give PAOK a late lead on eighty-two minutes. The Greek striker broke free with strike partner Muslimovic closing in on Nikopolidis and the Olympiacos goal. Instead of shuffling off a pass to his partner, Choutos kept the ball and fired an effort which completely avoided Nikopolidis, and more importantly the net to sail harmlessly out of bounds.

The miss was nearly just as devastating, if not more, than their opponents’ chance from moments before. Jeers spilled from the stands, as fans were clearly upset with the poor decision making of their Greek striker.

Olympiacos again looked to punish PAOK with a late venture of their own just two minutes later. Again it was Giannis Papadopoulos playing provider as he fed Mitroglou with a through pass; likewise, the Greek striker again missed a chance to slot home a goal with the ball trickling just wide of the upright.

On ninety minutes PAOK was reduced to ten-men with the sending off of Joe Bizera for a hard tackle on Giannis Papadopoulos. The Uruguayan defender was shown a straight red for his hack on the shins of the Greek after losing possession to Olympiacos’ proactive midfielder.

While the match was billed to be a battle between two of Greece’s best club’s this season, the final whistle surely brought disappointment as derby spoils were split between both clubs.

Both sides had created only a handful of quality chances between them, but in that selected series there were many chances that went wasted thanks to horrible finishing from either striking core.

Olympiacos will look ahead to ending their three game winless run in the Super League, which started against Ergotelis in Crete, with a home encounter against Iraklis on Sunday. One day prior, PAOK travels to the Alkazar Stadium where Larissa awaits the ‘Dikefale tou Vorra’ in a potential playoff battle in the future.

PAOK FC 0-0 Olympiacos CFP

Yellow Cards:
PAOK FC – Bakayoko 26′, Lino 68′, Conceicao 85′.
Olympiacos CFP – Mendrinos 24′ (61′), Oscar 29′, Torosidis 72′, Pantos 87′, G. Papadopoulos 90′.

Red Cards:
PAOK FC – Bizera 90′ (sent off with straight red card).
Olympiacos CFP – Mendrinos 61′ (sent off after second booking).

PAOK FC (Fernando Santos): Chalkias, Sznaucer, Lino, Malezas, Balafas (58′ Vierinha), Bizera, Veron, Conceicao, Sorlin, Bakayoko (58′ Choutos), Muslimovic.

Olympiacos CFP (Ernesto Valverde): Nikopolidis, Torosidis, Pantos, A. Papadopoulos, Zewlakow, G. Papadopoulos, Mendrinos, Patsatzoglou, Mitroglou, Oscar (89′ Belluschi), Leonardo (58′ Djordjevic).

Referee: Anastasios Kakos (Kerkyra)

Attendance: 22, 214

Venue: Toumba Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece.