Olympiakos hopes to party
Celebrating the 80th anniversary of its inception tonight, Olympiakos hopes to mark the occasion with a hearty home win in a first-leg UEFA Cup tie against Newcastle United for a quarterfinal berth. The Piraeus club, one of the country’s two biggest in terms of popularity, success and financial standing, was founded on this day back in 1925. It goes into tonight’s match having just conceded sole possession of the top spot in the domestic league. A 1-1 away draw against Thessaloniki rival PAOK last weekend helped challenger Panathinaikos overcome a two-point deficit. Olympiakos coach Dusan Bajevic told a news conference yesterday that his team was eager to have its fans back in the stands for tonight’s encounter. The club, in recent weeks, has had to do without home-stand support in domestic competition because of two fan bans imposed over separate cases of crowd violence. Just days ago, an appeal filed by the club over the second penalty, for two games, was overturned. «Our fans haven’t been to the stadium for a while. Olympiakos has a strong home-ground advantage. Our fans can help immensely. We’ve already seen that in the Champions League and other games,» said Bajevic. Olympiakos enjoyed a perfect home record in this season’s Champions League, with three wins from as many games. But the team’s eventual 10-point tally from six games left it out of the competition’s second phase. Third spot in its group provided Olympiakos with a consolatory berth in the UEFA Cup’s third round, where it eliminated French team Sochaux, before being drawn against Newcastle United. «The most important thing for us is to avoid conceding a goal. We’ll give it our best as we’ve already done in our previous games here. Beyond that, I wouldn’t want to elaborate about a match score,» Bajevic said. «The second leg will definitely be tough,» he added, possibly guided by the shocking memory of Olympiakos’s last visit to England, last December, where the team crumbled for a 3-1 loss against Liverpool after opening the scoring. A 2-1 defeat would have put Olympiakos through to the Champions League’s next round. Rivaldo, Bajevic said, appeared ready to return following an ankle strain that forced the Brazilian star to miss last weekend’s game against PAOK. Midfielder Anastassios Pantos returns from suspension after missing the 1-0 win over Sochaux a fortnight ago. Newcastle will be looking for a sixth consecutive win. Though mid-table in the English Premier League, the in-form club is a contender in two cups, the UEFA Cup and the domestic FA Cup. On Sunday, Newcastle meets Tottenham Hotspur in the last eight of the FA Cup. Newcastle’s Laurent Robert of France was looking forward to the cup challenges. «Now we are in two cups in our next two games, against Olympiakos and then Spurs,» said Robert, whose sizzling free kick last Saturday saw the Magpies beat Liverpool 1-0. «The season is still exciting for us. Every game is a different challenge for us, but when we are winning, we want the games to come quickly.» Nigerian international defender Celestine Babayaro was missing from the Newcastle squad, which traveled here Tuesday, because of a knee injury and Aaron Hughes is likely to continue at left back in his absence. Manager Graeme Souness’s 20-man squad did not include Frenchman Jean-Alain Boumsong who is cup-tied and Andy O’Brien is likely to replace him. Darren Ambrose is out of the squad with a thigh strain and Robbie Elliott does not feature either. The Newcastle squad intends to return home immediately after tonight’s game to give the team more time to prepare for their clash against Spurs. Souness, quoted on the club’s website, said: «We’re expecting a tough game in Athens, there’s no doubt about that. It will be hostile, but that doesn’t faze me or the players as we’ve all experienced that sort of stuff before… We’re on a good run of form at the moment and hopefully that will continue in Athens.» When asked about Newcastle’s recent good form, Souness said it was typical of the fluctuating fortunes of the sport. «That’s the way things go in football. One minute you are under pressure, the next, everything is rosy. Look at the Olympiakos manager. He’s top of the league, but after a few bad results, the fans are wanting him out. That’s the price on the ticket, it’s what you expect when you are managing a big club.» (Kathimerini, AFP)
