Preview: Panionios vs AEK Athens
By: Chris Paraskevas | September 27th, 2008After a dismal showing against Iraklis at the OAKA last weekend, Giorgios Donis now faces the unenviable task of taking his new side to the Nea Smyrni for a potentially disastrous fourth round encounter against Panionios.
Coached by the brilliant Ewald Lienen, the Kyanerythri probably won’t have Alvaro Recoba and Fabian 
Estoyanoff making their GSL debuts – one less thing for AEK to worry about – but embarrassed the Kitrinomavri when they laid siege to the Olympic Stadium in a 3-2 victory last season.
One wonders whether a similar result – without the two in reply by the Dikefalos – might just wait around the corner for a squad who appear to be taking some time to gel and whom Donis claims are about “3-4 weeks” away from being ready for competitive football.
Three matches in and one can’t even be sure as to the former Larissa manager’s preferred tactical set-up. It seemed as though he was keen to implement his own style on the side by introducing his squad to the 4-3-3 formation that brought him relative success with the Vyssini but it might just be that constant media scrutiny and their fetish for the 4-4-2 system has begun to plague the mind of the inexperienced 38 year-old. Ironically, the implementation of the shape and the subsequently dreadful outing last round gave critics more ammunition…
Agustin Pelletieri performed admirably after being given his first competitive start, whilst Angelos Basinas was his characteristically indifferent self, mixing accuracy with laziness and being luck to have finished the match on the field with some rather odd challenges – particularly after he was cautioned.
Could the match against the historic Athenian cousins be the midfielder’s last chance to impress a seemingly impatient Greece boss? His substitute role against Latvia might be a sign that the German is assessing other options in midfield, which make’s the 32 year-old’s next performance all the more significant on a personal level.
Here’s the squad: (The absence of Djebbour appears to be down to a clause in his contract)
Saja, Macho, Majstorovic, Alexopoulos, Kyrgiakos, Edson Ramos Silva, Juanfran, Georgeas, Basinas, Pliatsikas, Rikka, Pelletieri, Kafes, Lagos, Scocco, Edinho, Blanco, Pavlis, Koutroumanos, Hetemaj
FYI, I was about to leave the Greek player’s names in the native Hellenic language but my love for all of you – my loyal blog-followers – inspired me to translate them into English, despite the fact that it is approximatley 1:04 am EST 
Category: AEK Athens Team News
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