St. Etienne hands Olympiacos an “ASSE” whooping

By: Chris Pavlakos | February 19th, 2009

I predicted a 3-1 scoreline for Wednesday’s game and I was right… I just had the teams wrong. Wrong, that’s a good word to describe this game. The game started off well enough and I (and my friend and his dad) were positive we had scored in the 3rd minute off a free kick, but the goal was called back (correctly) for offside and it was all downhill from there.

Not so great beginnings
Didier Domi committed a huge defensive mistake in the 12th minute and Ilan promptly slotted the ball that Domi had so generously given to him into the net and just like that Olympiacos (who have not lost a game at home in any competition this year) were down 1-0 in a European match. I knew the game was not going to turn out in our favor when Diogo fought through Tavlaridis mauling him and had a clear break on goal– just to be called back by the referee. I guess he has never heard of that thing called advantage? Directly resulting from this foul a counter attack was swiftly finished by Dernis and we were down 2-0 at halftime instead of being tied 1-1.

Wasted chances
The second half was full of opportunities to save the game, but none of them were taken. Djordjevic had a clear header on goal after he made an amazing run (yes, Djole can still run) into the box and his bald, shiny head was met by a pin-point cross from Galletti. Sadly, Djole’s finish was not as good as Galletti’s service and the ball went out, agonizingly looping past the defeated keeper and goalpost. Dudu had a few chances as did Galletti and Diogo, but nobody could finish. We did find the back of the net after Patsatzoglou was tackled “in the box” and earned a penalty that Djole slotted in at the stroke of 64′ and I had a hope, a prayer that we would scrape out the draw. Derbyshire and Oscar were subbed in for Galletti and Djole respectively and their fresh (if less talented) legs lead me to think that I might see one more goal before this game was over.

Dagger
My feeling that I would see one more goal before the end of the game was correct, however as with the scoreline… it was for the wrong team. Olympiacos set a feverish pace in the final 30 minutes, we were creating chances left and right but could not finish any of them. When a team is pushing hard for a goal it is very easy to get broken against on a counter-attack. Bafétimbi Gomis drove a dagger into this game in stoppage time as he took one of the counters and whistled a shot into the top corner of the net.

The aftermath
The game finished 3-1 and our European prospects look gloomy at best. We need to win 3-0 away in order to advance and the game is sandwiched between the big Panathinaikos derby and PAOK cup return matches. I am not going to say we are out of UEFA because of Wednesday’s game, but I am not that confident that we will be playing Milan or Werder when I am in Athens come March 15th.

Olympiacos CFP 1-3 St. Etienne ASSE
P. Djordjević 64(pen) Ilan 12, Dernis 43, Gomis 90+ 1

Yellow Cards:
Olympiacos CFP – A. Papadopoulos 23, Diogo 78, Dudu 84.
St. Etienne- Tavlaridis 6, Dernis 29, Varrault 62, Dabo 74.

Red Cards:
Olympiacos CFP – none.
St. Etienne – none.

Referee:
Lucilio Cardoso Cortez Batista (POR)

Venue:
Giorgos Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece.

Official UEFA Match Report