At halftime, Olympiacos went to the locker rooms with a 2-0 lead although they could have scored many more goals, based on their good performance and the chances they created. Earlier, the Marcano scored the opener on 18 minutes with a header and Cholevas took a penalty kick at the extra time (45+2΄) sending the ball at the back of Aris’s net. The penalty was earned by Djamel Abdoun when keeper Sifakis tried stopping him on the one on one and received a red card. The winner was netted in the second half (69 minutes) by Kevin Mirallas after a beautiful pass from Makoun.
Although head coach Valverde decided to give some of his players the chance to recuperate from many consecutive games, the group that was chosen play against Aris managed to offer the fans a very nice spectacle and at the same time help the rest of the team regain its strength in sight of the upcoming UEFA Europa League match against F.C. Metalist on Thursday.
SCORERS: 18′ Marcano, 45+2′ pen. Cholevas, 69′ Mirallas.
REFEREE: Yahos (Hios)
ATTEMPTS AGAINST THE BAR: 23′ Mirallas
YELLOW CARDS: 45+3′ Cholevas, 60′ Torossidis – 24′ Sankare, 45+3′ Kapetanos
RED CARDS: 45′ Sifakis
OLYMPIACOS F.C.: Megyeri, Modesto, Mellberg, Ibagaza (62′ Maniatis), Mirallas (72′ Kazim-Richards), Cholevas, Marcano, Torossidis, Makoun, Diogo, Abdoun.
ARIS: Sifakis, Neto, Papazacharias, Soltani, Castillo, Sankare, Kapetanos, Lazaridis, Tsoukanis, Katidis (73′ Prittas), Acosta (46′ Yianniotas).
