Olympiacos aims for Cup success in Crete

By: Peter Katsiris | January 21st, 2009

Olympiacos will be aiming for the quarterfinals of the Greek Cup tonight (20:00 GR, ALPHA), as the Greek Champion travel to Crete to face OFI at the Pankritio Stadium in Heraklion. Struggling to cope with just one available striker at the moment, the Greek Champions and defending Cup Champions have yet to find their groove which terrorized domestic and foreign opponents before the New Year.

The first trip to Crete saw the Greek Champions finish level with a 0-0 score-line with their hosts, but a similar result tonight won’t do either side any good as a replay would be forced in Piraeus. Aiming to book qualification tonight in Crete, Ernesto Valverde will be hoping his side come out firing on all cylinders in Heraklion.

Antonis Nikopolidis is expected to start between the posts, but Valvered is expected to make a few tweaks to the remainder of the Olympiacos line-up. In defense there will be few changes, as Anastasios Pantos is expected to start in place of Vasilis Torosidis. In the center of defense, Avraam Papadopoulos will continue to guard the center line along with Paraskevas Antzas or Michal Zewlakow. At the other wing, Frenchman Didier Domi is expected to run the left flank.

In the midfield, Valverde is not yet ready to sacrifice some of his regulars for some time off. Christos Patsatzoglou and Dudu have been tipped to start for the visitors, while Luciano Galletti is expected to team up with club legend Predrag Djordjevic on opposite flanks.

There is no choice in attack for Valverde, as the continuous injury to Kostas Mitroglou has not yet been defeated; while Darko Kovacevic is nearing retirement. That leaves Diogo as the lone choice in the striking position, and the Brazilian has already been targeted by opposing defenders.

For OFI they will take plenty of confidence from their prior 0-0 draw with Olympiacos, and a 2-0 win over Panionios will also give the Cretan’s a boost. However, two absentees in the OFI line-up do plague manager Ioannis Matzourakis. Konstantinos Stavrakakis, and Pierre Issa have been ruled out for the Cretan outfit.

Still hoping to salvage their season in the Super League, the Cretans will also be wishing to be part of the quarterfinal draw on Monday – but hoping they take care of business tonight in Crete.