Olympiacos tried from the beginning to pressure their opponents and FC Rubin Kazan’s players seemed to be taken by surprise, as they expected to come against a team with more defensive intentions.
The pressure brought the expected result and on 13 minutes when Ariel Ibagaza’s took a free kick from the right side of the pitch, sending the ball towards Ivan Marcano on the left side of the FC Rubin Kazan’s box. The Spanish defender of Olympiacos took the first header; Rafik Djebbour met the ball also with his head and found the back of the net, giving Olympiacos the lead.
In the second half FC Rubin Kazan found some balance in the game and pressured the home team, thus even creating some goalscoring opportunities. Roy Carroll’s performance and our team’s proper defensive overall function were the reasons why Olympiacos did not conceive a goal.
Roy Carroll’s performance, in particular, was outstanding, as he suffered an injury 25 minutes prior to full time and still managed to make it through the whole 90 minutes making the fans cheer for him from minutes before to minutes after the end of the game.
SCORERS: Djebbour (13’)
REFEREE: Stefan Johannesson (SWE)
ASSISTANT REFEREES: Fredrik Nilsson (SWE), Magnus Sjöblom (SWE)
FOURTH OFFICIAL: Daniel Stålhammar (SWE)
ADDITIONAL ASSISTANT REFEREES: Michael Lerjeus (SWE), Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)
YELLOW CARDS: Ibagaza (20’), Mellberg (47’), Djebbour (63’), Fuster (77’), Marcano (90’+2) / Nelson Valdez (43’), Martins (59’), Bocchetti (67’).
RED CARDS: – / –
ATTEMPTS AGAINST THE BAR: 90’+1 Nelson Valdez
OLYMPIACOS FC: Carroll, Maniatis, Mellberg, Ibagaza (72’ Makoun), Djebbour (88’ Abdoun), Mirallas, Fuster (81’ Modesto), Av. Papadopoulos, Marcano, Orbaiz, Torossidis.
FC RUBIN KAZAN: Ryzhikov, Kuzmin, Navas, Martins (63’ Kasaev), Ryazantsev, Kislyak (46’ Dyadyun), Nelson Valdez, Bocchetti, Karadeniz, Natcho, Sharonov (68’ Nemov)
