Leonardo Jardim had yet again last night the chance to try many things, during the friendly match against S.C. Braga. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. The two teams took 5 penalties each and the shoot-out ended with a 4-4 score.
Olympiacos’s head coach decided to use a 4-3-3 formation. Megyeri was at the goalposts. Modesto was the right defender, Cholevas the left one and Siovas with Manolas were the 2 stoppers. Fejsa was the defensive midfielder, while Tatos and Maniatis played in front of him. At the flanks, Abdoun was on the right, Lykogiannis was on the left and Kostas Mitroglou played as the center forward.
On 4’ Hugo Viana took a shot but the ball missed its target. On the 6th minute Abdoun crossed the ball from the right, Lykogiannis took the header but missed. It did not take Olympiacos long to find the back of the net and did so in a beautiful manner. On 7’ Maniatis passed to Modesto on the right, the defender crossed the ball to Tatos in the box, with the Greek youngster dribbling the defenders and defeating Quim with the shot.
On the 11th minute our team had another chance. Abdoun took a shot outside the box, but missed the target. On 20’ Maniatis and Mitroglou cooperated beautifully, the first of the two took a shot but the ball flew just past Quim’s post.
On 24’ Abdoun found Modesto on the right flank. He crossed the ball to Mitroglou, with the young striker shooting from within the box and missing by “a hair”. On the 35th minute S.C. Braga drew level, after a nice free kick shot from the left side, by Lima. The first half concluded with Balasz Megyeri saying “no” to Lima, who took a shot after the pass by Salino.
The second half began with Leonardo Jardim making a few changes. Modesto and Fejsa were the 2 defensive midfielders and Abdoun played in front of them. Fetfatzidis played at the right, Potouridis played as a left back, Papazoglou as the right defender and Raffik Djebbour was the center forward. The formation was then turned to 4-2-3-1.
Helder Barbosa took a shot on 55’ but Megyeri stopped it. Salino missed a good chance with the head on 58’, after the cross by Mossoro. Alan had a good, but “not on target” shot on 62’. Abdoun answered with a beautiful shot on 64’, making Quim throw the ball out of the field.
On 69’ Olympiacos had yet another chance to score. Abdoun dribbled his opponents from the left and crossed the ball to Djebbour, who was in a good spot, but did not manage to direct the header towards the back of the net. On 86’ Megyeri demonstrated his reflexes, by saying “no” to Custodio’s “point blank” header. Duglao’s goal in extra time did not count, as an offside.
The regular time ended in a 1-1 draw and so the two teams were lead to a 5 penalty shoot-out.
Lima scored on his 1st attempt and Siovas sent the ball to the crossbar. Eder marked the 2nd penalty for S.C. Braga and Fejsa found the target on his attempt. Custodio scored (3-1) and so did Chumbinho (3-2). Sezar marked the 4th penalty for Braga and so did Yiannis Fetfatzidis (4-3). Megyeri beat Hugo Viana and Raffik Djebbour drew level for Olympiacos (4-4), which was, in fact, the final result in the game.
S.C. BRAGA: Quim, Duglao, Vinicius, Custodio, Viana, Salino, Mossoro, Alan, Barbosa, Lima, Elderson. Paulo Sezar, Amorim and Eder also played.
OLYMPIACOS F.C.: Megyeri, Modesto (75’ Chumbinho), Cholevas (46’ Potouridis), Siovas, Manolas, Fejsa, Maniatis (46’ Papazoglou), Tatos (46’ Fetfatzidis), ASbdoun (75’ Vlachodimos), Lykogiannis, Mitroglou (46’ Djebbour).
• Djebbour and Viana received a yellow card.
• Olympiacos’s players will have the chance to relax a bit tomorrow morning. The last friendly match in Portugal, against Newcastle United F.C., is scheduled for tomorrow night (22:45 Greece time, 20:45 local time).
