Rosenberg punishes Olympiakos’s errors at Malmoe
A disappointing Olympiakos got the worst possible result from its clash with Malmoe in Sweden for the Champions League, going down 2-0 on Wednesday due to its own defensive errors and attacking insufficiency. Besides the loss, the score is ominous for the Reds should the two teams end up level on points in December.
The Greek champion conceded to Malmoe its first ever Champions League victory, complicating the group that also includes Atletico Madrid and Juventus, as all four teams are now on four points.
Malmoe was not technically or physically superior, but made the most of the chances it got, while Olympiakos proved wasteful in that respect.
Markus Rosenberg was the hero for the Swedish, avenging his losses to Olympiakos from the time he played for Werder Bremen in the previous decade. He took two of the several chances that the Olympiakos defense gifted him, while Olympiakos keeper Roberto denied him in other instances.
The Reds were superior in the first half but were simply unable to score, as Malmoe sat back to absorb the Greek team’s pressure. In one of the breaks Malmoe opened the score, on the 42nd minute, as Olympiakos defender Alberto Botia produced a howler in being unable to communicate with Roberto. Rosenberg said “thank you very much” and scored Malmoe’s first ever Champions League goal.
The Reds tried to bounce back in the second half, but the ghost of the 1-0 loss to Atromitos in the Greek league on Saturday haunted them. They should still have got a penalty when Yiannis Maniatis was brought down inside the box, but the referee chose instead to book him for playacting.
Confidence grew among the Swedish and they doubled their lead eight minutes from time as Rosenberg capitalized on another defensive mistake to generate some deafening noise in the stadium.
The result means that for Olympiakos to have any chance of progressing in the competition it will need to acquire at least two points in its next two games, both against Juventus.
