Our team’s bad start in the match turned into an exceptional performance in the second half which was… pure football magic!
F.C. Asteras Tripolis started the game strong and managed to surprise our team with the goals by Navarro (on 13 minutes) and Rogerio, three minutes later (on the 16th). Even though the situation seemed hard for Vavlerde’s players, they remained calm, maintaining possession of the ball and pressuring their opponents.
This had an almost immediate impact and on 19 minutes Bartolini tripped Jean II Makoun in F.C. Asteras Tripolis’ box. The referee pointed at the penalty mark and Kevin Mirallas was the one to score our team’s first goal for the evening.
Half-time found the visitors leading by a slender 2-1 but the second half was… a completely different ballgame! OLYMPIACOS F.C. came out strong onto the field and after scoring 3 goals managed to take a 4-2 lead within minutes! Raffik Djebbour brought the game to a tie on 49 minutes, Kevin Mirallas found the net again with a beautiful shot on 51 minutes – giving his team the lead 3-2- and Pablo Orbaiz scored the home team’s fourth goal, on 53 minutes!
As if this were not enough OLYMPIACOS F.C. kept building up the pressure on their opponents and “provided” quick, simple and teamwork based football, spreading enthusiasm to the fans! On the 70th minute, Kevin Mirallas found the net yet again, followed by David Fuster on 80 minutes (6-2). On the 89th minute, the Belgian striker scored his fourth (!) goal of the evening, sealing the end of the game with an emphatic 7-2 victory!
SCORERS: 20′ (pen), 51′, 70′, 89′ Mirallas, 49′ Djebbour, 53′ Orbaiz, 80′ Fuster – 13′ Navarro – 16′ Rogerio
REFEREE: Voskakis (Rethimno)
ATTEMPTS AGAINST THE BAR: 36′ Mirallas
YELLOW CARDS: 45+2′ Marcano – 19′ Bartolini, 21′ Juanito, 27′ Pipinis
RED CARDS: –
OLYMPIACOS F.C.: Megyeri, Modesto (46′ Maniatis), Mellberg, Djebbour (71′ C. Kazim-Richards), Mirallas, Av. Papadopoulos, Marcano, Orbaiz, Torossidis (78′ Fuster), Makoun, Abdoun.
F.C. ASTERAS TRIPOLIS: Bandis, Argiropoulos, Pipinis (39′ Formica), Kourbelis, Bartolini, Ucero, Juanito, Rogerio (72′ Hegon), Rayos, Navarro, Breska.
