A different kettle of gavroi…
By: Chris Paraskevas | September 22nd, 2008An utterly uninspiring game of football and a turgid performance from the Enosis.
The good news is that we won. And that we won playing terribly.
And that we won against Iraklis (consider the result in the context of last season’s OAKA debacle).
Majstorovic had his characteristic schoolboy-error-prone match at the heart of defense, with Kyrgiakos coming across to cover for his towering stopper on more than one occasion. In truth, though, the Swede did make some fairly crucial interceptions and certainly grew in confidence as the match wore on (he could do with conceding a few less fouls when going up for set-pieces, though).
Angelos Basinas actually got through a considerable load of work (surprising considering his recently relaxed demeanor for the national team of late) whilst Agustin Pelletieri was probably one of the more impressive performances as he was handed his first start for the club.
Rafik Djebbour toiled and showed glimpses of quality and pace, as well as also setting up Ismael Blanco for what should have been an opening goal after only two minutes of football had been played (it was incorrectly ruled offside but the result negates any suggestion of complaint). Again though, the Algerian was largely starved of service and support.
Sebastian Saja was given the MVP Award after the match, following his superb reflex save from Anestis Agritis early on in the second-half (in truth, though, the striker should have done a lot better with the effort). Upon reflection, Iraklis came scarily close to equalizing and on the basis of AEK’s increasingly poor performance, who knows where they might have ended up if the striker had place the ball anywhere but on top of the ‘keeper from barely a meter out.
In any case, Scocco’s header was brilliant and the Argentine has probably been the pick of the new, non-Greek summer acquisitions with his dribbling ability and enthusiasm (a lack of discipline might be his undoing, if he isn’t careful).
I’ll just take the ultimate biased view and say now that “Champions teams win when they aren’t at their best.”
Whether an Olympiakos team that we face in two weeks time shares that view – and whether they will be as unforgiving as Pedraza’s outfit were on Sunday – is a totally different kettle of gavroi…I mean, fish…
PS. Here’s a few of Donis’ post-match reactions…
AEK Athens 1 (Scocco 14’)
Iraklis 0
Line-ups:
AEK Athens: Saja, Majstorovic, Kyrgiakos, Edson Ramos Silva (87’ Georgeas), Juanfran, Pelletieri, Basinas, Scocco, Lagos (73’ Hetemaj), Djebbour (Edinho 77’), Blanco
Iraklis: Kowalewski, Bourbos, Katsambis, Papazacharias, Perperidis, Die, Papasterianos, Garcia (88’ Kiko Raton), Kone (81’ Marques), Agritis, Konstantinou (57’ Giantsis)
Category: AEK Athens Team News
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