Argentinean to miss Chelsea clash

Olympiakos star Luciano Galletti ruled out of next week’s Champions League match in London with thigh injury

Galletti in action during last week’s first-leg Round of 16 Champions League game against Chelsea, a 0-0 draw. Club doctors expect the Argentine to return for a big league clash against AEK on March 30.

Olympiakos midfielder Luciano Galletti has been ruled out of action for between two and three weeks, club doctors said, which means that the Argentine will miss the Piraeus team’s Round of 16 Champions League return leg against Chelsea in London on Wednesday week. The two teams played a scoreless draw in last week’s first leg.

Galletti sustained a thigh injury early in his team’s league clash against PAOK in Thessaloniki last weekend.

Club doctors estimated yesterday that Galletti would likely be ready to return for Olympiakos’s match against AEK on March 30. The sides are currently second and third in the Super League.

Faced with the prospect of a heavy schedule of games in coming weeks, including a first-leg cup quarterfinal against Iraklis tomorrow, Olympiakos coach Takis Lemonis is expected to rest a number of regular starters tomorrow. Striker Lomana LuaLua should be back from injury for tomorrow’s game. Reacting to an English press report in which he was quoted as wishing to return to Newcastle United, the African player denied having discussed such a prospect with the English club.

“I would love to go back to Newcastle. I feel I have unfinished business there,” the Congo international was quoted as saying in Britain’s Daily Mirror. LuaLua played at Newcastle United between 2000 and 2004.

Meanwhile, Brazilian coach Paulo Campos, who was sacked last weekend by Asteras Tripolis, the Super League’s surprise performer this season, said yesterday that he expected good news about a new job, either in Greece or elsewhere in Europe. He clarified though that he did not expect the news to come from AEK, which recently sacked its coach, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.