Injuries plague Greek Cup Derby

By: Peter Katsiris | February 4th, 2009

The two top sides in the Greek Super League meet tonight at the Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki, but the highly-anticipated Greek Cup derby between PAOK and Olympiacos CFP will be shorthanded in a sense as several regulars from both clubs will be absent.

The two sides have met just once this season, but the surroundings featured the hot lights of the Giorgos Karaiskakis Stadium and Olympiacos emerged 2-0 winners. The win for the ‘Erythrolefki’ kick-started a breakaway for Olympiacos at the Greek summit, which has now reached 11-points over their Wednesday night hosts.

The last meeting, like many in the past, turned out to be an ugly affair. Pablo Garcia was involved in a sucker-punch with Olympiacos’ Diogo, extended the derby’s intensity to an extreme.

PAOK’s gateway to the quarterfinals was a tricky regional derby with fierce rivals Aris FC. After a scoreless first leg at Toumba, PAOK took their Greek Cup hopes on the road to defeat their city rivals in a stunning penalty shootout.

There was an easier task at hand for Olympiacos, but the Greek Champions and defending Greek Cup winners made it tougher than it really was as they slipped past OFI Crete with a 2-0.

On that night in Crete, Olympiacos was able to give some of its superstars some time off; tonight it is expected to be a different story. Ernesto Valverde will have a tough time filling the voids, as several of Olympiacos’ regular contributors will sit out the first leg of the quarterfinals.

After a weekend derby win against AEK, Olympiacos’ leading scorer in the Super League Luciano Galletti will miss out on the trip to Northern Greece. Joining Galletti on the sidelines is compatriot Sebastian Leto, and Brazilian striker Diogo. Didier Domi will also miss the derby, as does Kyriakos Papadopoulos, and Leonida Panagopoulos. Meanwhile, Ieroklis Stoltidis continues to remain out of the line-up, after surgery has plagued the Greek holding midfielder.

It’s a likewise situations for PAOK bench boss Fernando Santos, who will have to select somebody other than PAOK’s star striker Zlatan Muslimovic. The plague of injuries don’t appear to rack up as much as it does for the visitors, but PAOK’s Portuguese manager will have to accommodate for the injured Muslimovic. In addition, Miroslaw Sznaucer remains sidelined, and so too does defender Joe Bizera.

For Olympiacos, there is likely to be a debutant among the starting eleven; Matt Derbyshire is expected to make his debut tonight. The on-loan Blackburn Rovers prospect was not named to the weekend roster that faced AEK on Sunday, but with Diogo sidelined Derbyshire is first in line to get the start.

The only other changes coming from Valverde are likely to see Oscar Gonzalez get an appearance in the starting lineup, while Predrag Djordjevic re-emerges from the shadows of injured Leto.

Santos, meanwhile, is likely to select last year’s Beta Ethniki leading scorer as his lone striker as Ilias Anastasakos is tipped to replace the injured Muslimovic.

PAOK will be looking to give Santos a winning send off in his 200^th match as manager in Greece, but the Greek Champions will provide plenty of resistance to rain on Santos’ parade. Historically speaking, PAOK was successful the last three times these two teams met in the Cup. Beating the now Greek Cup winners to claim the 2000/2001 Greek Cup title, PAOK eliminated Olympiacos from the Cup two years later in the quarterfinals.

PAOK FC (Fernando Santos): Chalkias, Glykos, Athanasiadis, Anastasakos, Arambatzis, Darla, Iliadi, Konstantinidis, Malezas, Balafas, Paraliki, Conceicao, Contreras, Garcia, Ivic, Lino, Markos Antonio, Sorlin, Veron.

Olympiacos CFP (Ernesto Valverde): Nikopolidis, Kovac, Pantos, Leonardo, Patsatzoglou, Djordjevic, Belluschi, Zewlakow, Galitsios, Dudu, Torosidis, Derbyshire, Oscar Gonzalez, Mitroglou, Mendrinos, A. Papadopoulos, G. Papadopoulos, Antzas.