Olympiacos out for revenge at home against Aris

By: Peter Katsiris | February 14th, 2009

Olympiacos is enjoying another dominant season in the Greek Super League; however, on Saturday evening the ‘Erythrolefki’ will be aiming to level the season score with Aris FC, as Ernesto Valverde’s Olympiacos aims to claim revenge after losing out to the Thessaloniki-based side earlier in the season.

With just one domestic defeat thus far, Olympiacos slim 1-0 loss to Aris at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium back in November is so far the only result keeping the four-time defending from furthering their twelve-point grip at the Greek summit.

While Olympiacos is on pace for another Greek Championship, potentially their twelfth in thirteen years, Aris is struggling to stay alive in the Super League playoff race. With an end-of-season tournament between the first four runners up deciding who will make it into European competition next term, ‘O Theos tou Polemou’ is desperately trying to position itself to be successful in the approaching playoffs.

A visit to the Giorgos Karaiskakis Stadium this weekend is expected to deflate the visitors’ attempt to reach the playoffs, at least momentarily, as Olympiacos looks to exercise its apparent invincible home-field advantage.

Olympiacos bench boss Ernesto Valverde might be looking to keep his players energized ahead of a crucial mid-week match against Saint-Etienne, but the Greek Champions have stressed their immediate attention is solely on their meeting with Aris.

The Spaniard has most of his regulars available for selection on Saturday, but Leonardo, Ieroklis Stoltidis, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Giannis Papadopoulos, Leonidas Panagopoulos, and Konstantins Mitroglou all remain out for the weekend fixture.

The visitors have won two consecutive matches by slim 1-0 scorelines, and have gone undefeated in their last three league matches. Iomar Mazinho will be looking to steer his side into Piraeus and into the win column for the third consecutive match.

The Brazilian bench boss won’t have too much of a struggle piecing together his squad, as only a few absentees including Ronaldo Guiaro will miss the Piraeus trip.

Olympiacos CFP (Ernesto Valverde): Nikopolidis, Kovac, Pantos, Domi, Patsatzoglou, Djordjevic, Belluschi, Zewlakow, Galletti, Dudu, Torosidis, Derbyshire, Oscar, Leto, Mendrinos, A. Papadopoulos, Diogo, Antzas.

Aris FC (Iomar Mazinho): Sifakis, Neto, Jahic, Lembo, Vitolo, Javito, Calvo, Battion, Gentil, Koke, Wlodarczyk, Lambriakos, Karatziovalis, Robegre, Karambelas, Campora, Prittas, Kouloucheris, Regueiro.