Injection of morale for the yellow -blacks against Olympiacos who got the ticket for the final.
Olympiacos qualified, AEK … breathed with a 2-0 win in the semifinals rematch. The 6-0 in favor of the Reds in the first match, left no room for doubts about the team that would face OFI in the final of May 17th. But AEK, which came from successive negative results, wanted a prestige victory and won it with Karmos ‘own goal in the 37’ and Mandalus ‘direct foul in the 77’.
One team had the motivation tonight in New Philadelphia and that was AEK. So, from the beginning of the game, the “yellow -blacks” were more mobile, with more passion against an Olympian who was expecting to … the obligation to come out.
The hosts opened the scoring at 37΄ with Karmos’ own goal after Koita’s individual energy from the left. They lost two great opportunities before and after the goal, with Alexander Paschalakis intervening in a tie-a-tete with Pierre at 27΄ and Fernandes at 51΄.
As time went on, the two teams seemed to reconcile the situation and the coaches were gearing up to the next games. This was evident from the changes that were most intended to remain “fresh” by players, rather than improving bad texts.
However, in the 77th, Petros Mandalos with a direct foul wrote the 2-0 “sealing” the victory for the Union that took a significant “morale” in view of the difficult continuity of the play off.
Olympiacos in the 86 ‘missed his only opportunity in the match with El Kabi failing very close after a shooting by Tsikinio.
AEK (Matthias Almeida): Strakosa, Moukoundi, Mitoglou, Audubajo (74΄ Rota), Pelion, Simanski, Ljubicic (52΄ Mandalos), Koita (74΄ Gatsinovic), Eliason, Fernandes (61΄ Pineda), Pierre (61΄).
OLYMPIC (Jose Luis Mendilibar): Paschalakis, Costina, Biancon (68΄ Pirola), Carmos, Bruno, Stamenic (65΄ Danny Garcia), Es, Belde, Orta (46΄ Tsikinio), Palma (81΄ Rodinei), Kostoulas (68΄).