Bad week gets a whole lot worse…

It’s official: AEK will not be playing European football this season, courtesy of two quality strikes by Albanian veteran Klodian Duro.

And quite frankly, as a club and as a team, they don’t deserve to. Across 180 minutes of football, we barely broke down AC Omonia, who arguably aren’t even Cyprus’ strongest side. To me, it is a sign that AEK do not deserve to be in the UEFA Cup this season.

That being said, I don’t mean to suggest that Cypriot football isn’t without quality. There has been a steady improvement by Cyprus over the past year in particular, which is reflected in the sudden rise of their national team. Both Omonia and Anorthosis fully deserve to be performing in Europe this season.

That said, the results of AEK and Olympiakos are still humiliating ones. If AEK can’t beat Omonia, they have no business in the UEFA Cup, where they potentially would have been up against the likes of AC Milan (not a pretty picture at all…).

The reasons for our shock early exit? Do we lay the finger of blame on Donis? Rivaldo? Kafes? Majstorovic? Serge Gumienny, the Belgian referee who provided the “assist” for Cafu’s crucial winner in the first leg in Athens?

To single out one reason for the catastrophe that has unfolded over the past two weeks would be naive and simplistic. AEK’s early European exit is a reflection of problems at an administrative and football level which have existed at a domestic level across Greece for many-a-season.

It would take more than a comfortable blog space to analyze such issues, so instead, for now, AEK fans must simply live with the harsh reality that their side is not good enough for Europe. Omonia were the better side and so it will stay until AEK prove otherwise next season.

If one thing is to be learned after the 3-2 aggregate loss to the Cyrpiots, it is that the conspicuous lack of investment in the side is certainly telling on the European stage. A poor pre-season is no coincidence. It reflects a lack of depth and player talent necessary to mount a combined domestic and European campaign. For this, AEK’s administration are at fault. There is incredulous arrogance in thinking that a bare-bones squad will suffice against sides stereotyped as “inferior”.

AEK - and Greek football in general - must quickly learn to respect all of their opponents, regardless of whether they come from Cyprus, Belarus or Latvia. The divide in quality at the ‘lower’ end of the European domestic scene is quickly shrinking and Greek teams are the latest to be hurt by the same types of stereotypes held against their own kind at both domestic and international level not so long ago…

I’m pretty sure these are the highlights of the match. I didn’t get to watch the vid as my net has been slowed (it’s been a difficult week all round):

AC Omonia 2 (Duro 11’, 70’)
AEK Athens 2 (Blanco 16’, Pavlis 89’)

Line-ups:

AC Omonia: Giorgallidis, Ndikumana, Pletsch, Wenzel, Charalambous, Christofi (66’ Okkas), Kaseke, Zlogar, Clayton (77’ Aloneftis), Duro, Cafu

AEK Athens: Saja, Edson Ramos Silva, Majstorovic, Kyrgiakos, Juanfran, Kafes (75’ Lagos), Rikka (75’ Zorbas), Basinas, Edinho (79’ Pavlis), Scocco, Blanco

Category: AEK Athens Team News

Tags: AEK Athens Team News

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