Soccer cup finalists will emerge today
Olympiakos and AEK are the favorites in today’s soccer cup second-leg semifinals to proceed to the final in Iraklion on May 6. Hoping to rebound from a league defeat in Thessaloniki on Sunday, AEK returns to the northern city to play the surprise package from the third division, Agrotikos Asteras. AEK will be defending a 3-0 lead from the first leg at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. Olympiakos has a somewhat harder task at Larissa. The all-but-declared champions won 3-1 in Piraeus but tonight’s second leg will be a daunting task against a hard-to-beat side boosted by 15,000 fans. Some of Olympiakos’s biggest stars, such as Rivaldo, Toure, Constantinou and Georgatos, will be missing from manager Trond Sollied’s squad. The Reds will also be deprived of their fans, as Olympiakos decided against reaching a compromise on their number, following a weeklong tussle with Larissa on that.
