A Big Fat Greek Super League Roundup

With the international break upon us we can all pause, take a deep breath and get a clear overview of the club football season so far. Ryan Keaney does just that now, with a look at the goings-on in Greece:

Take one glance at the Greek Super League table after just five games and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s all got off to a rather predictable start. The two big names of Greek football Olympiakos Piräeus and Panathinaikos, no doubt familiar to fans across Europe, are currently ahead of an unfamiliar pack but the truth is a slightly different. Neither of the two clubs, who have won 57 Greek League titles between them, have had it easy in their early matches while last year’s contenders AEK Athens and PAOK have failed to hit the ground running in a league that could be quite exciting, you know once you dip down below the top two that tend to dominate everything.

Flying chairs

In the country’s capital, sections of the AEK Athens crowd have been doing everything they can to force their manager out and it finally worked last week. Dusan Bajevic, an undisputed legend of Greek football thanks to his eight Greek Super League wins as a coach, resigned from the club on last week in the wake of an embarrassing result. Never forgiven by some of the AEK faithful for his time in charge of great-rivals Olympiakos, Bajevic was punched and kicked by a gang after a pre-season friendly before having chairs thrown at him following last Sunday’s shock 3-1 defeat to Olympiakos Volos.

The 61 year-old, who wasn’t hit by any of the chairs, resigned soon after the match without trying to offer any excuses for his team’s poor start to the season. A busy summer of recruitment that saw Christos Patsatzoglou, Claudio Dadómo and Papa Bouba Diop brought in had seen a wave of optimism flow over AEK as they looked to improve on two successive 4th place league finishes. Unfortunately for Dusan, just four points from the first four league games was not good enough for the already temperamental AEK fans. A second away defeat to a newly-promoted side, following the opening day loss to AO Kerkyra, brought to an end Bajevic’s third tenure in charge.

Unfortunately for caretaker coach Bledar Kola, Bajevic’s resignation didn’t trigger an immediate turnaround in fortunes for AEK as they were crushed 4-2 by Zenit St. Petersburg in the Europa League. Thankfully for the sake of the Olympic Stadium seats, Kola’s first home league match in charge ended in victory as they scrapped to a 1-0 win over Xanthi on Sunday.

Ernesto’s mission

Olympiakos did not win their first game of the new season until September. Ernesto Valverde, who had left Olympiakos at the end of the 2008/09 season to join Villarreal, returned to the club in August with one aim; get the Greek Super League title back from Panathinaikos. Albert Riera, Dennis Rommedahl, François Modesto and Kevin Mirallas were brought in from the four corners of Europe while Ernesto went back to his former Spanish employers to snag “El Caño” Ariel Ibagaza.

But the most successful team in Greek football history were knocked out of European football before the league season had even begun by Maccabi Tel Aviv and were then shocked by Iraklis on the opening day. Karim Soltani set up Anostolos Vellios with just four minutes left in the game to heap immediate pressure on Valverde but since that disappointment Olympiakos have scaled to the top of the league.

Thanks to a combination of battling wins, the sides around them dropping points and two goals each from Ibagaza and other new-boy Marko Pantelić things are looking a lot rosier for The Red-Whites. With the first ‘Derby of the Eternal Enemies’ (Ντέρμπι των αιωνίων αντιπάλων) against Panathinaikos just under one month away, Olympiakos have started to look more and more like a team and less like a group of new signings. A brace from Mirallas at the weekend helped Piräus to a 3-1 win over Olympiakos Volos.

Not beaten, not brilliant

The Champions have been just as unconvincing in their first five games even though they remain the only side still unbeaten in the Greek Super League. Having ended a six year spell without winning the league last season, Nikos Nioplias refused to rest on his laurels as he looks to retain the Championship and had a very busy summer break. Panathinaikos signed Jean-Alain Boumsong and Sidney Govou from Olympique Lyonnais, Luis Garcia from Racing Santander and Georgios Ioannidis from Iraklis but were then held to a 1-1 draw by Skoda Xanthi on the opening day of the league.

A Djibril Cissé penalty helped Trifylli scrape to victory over Aris in their second game before they were humbled by a certain small Argentine at the Nou Camp. Lionel Messi led Barcelona in a 5-1 destruction of the Greek champions and even that disappointment couldn’t kick Nioplias’ side into gear. Three disappointing performances followed which included a home defeat at the hands of F.C. Copenhagen in the Champions League; though those will be quickly forgotten thanks to a blistering first half against Ergotelis in the most recent round of Super League matches. The Shamrock were 3-0 up at the break thanks to two goals from Cissé and an opener from left-back Nikos Spiropoulos, and ended up winning the match 4-1; a sign they are finding their feet at the same time as their great rivals.

The others

Behind the big two, a host of potential contenders have made strong starts. Aris Saloniki, fifth last season and the small team that shocked Atlético Madrid three weeks ago, have been involved in six 1-0 games so far this season which they have won four of. Not enthralling games as far as I am aware, but effective none the less. They have managed to enjoy themselves in Europe even though they did recently taste defeat to Rosenberg while still keeping touch with the early leaders.

Behind them are Iraklis, AO Kerkyra and AO Kavala; who are all on eight points and who have all taken points off the biggest three teams in Greece. Kerkyra were one of the sides that led to Bajevic’s downfall at AEK, Kavala drew with Panathinaikos while it was Iraklis that welcomed Ernesto Valverde back to Greek league football with defeat. Iraklis are far and away the strongest of the three teams thanks to their Super League experience and given some shrewd summer dealings. Europe isn’t completely out of the question for them. Hell, thanks to the wacky playoffs that decide places 2, 3, 4 and 5 in Greece, Iraklis could even qualify for next season’s Champions League.

The final Greek team involved in Europe, Larissa, has had some really changeable fortunes so far. Victory over Panserraikos on the opening day remains their only league win of the season. Currently 11th in the table, their fans were at least able to at least celebrate a hard-fought 1-0 Europa League win over Dinamo Zagreb in the week.

This isn’t likely to be a season that sees the domination of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos completely shattered, but there are signs that some clubs are heading in the right direction. The next set of games begins after the international break on Saturday October 16th.

You can read more from Ryan Keaney over at his sports blog The First Eleven.

(Photo – an excellent one might I add – via ML.P on Flickr)

AEK Athens, Ernesto Valverde, Greece, Greek Super League, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos