Tall Europa League order for Greek trio
Thursday night proved to be a memorable one for Greek soccer as all three of the country’s representatives in the Europa League, Europe’s second-tier competition, qualified for the group stages. AEK, PAOK and Aris all secured 1-1 draws with their opponents to go through to the next stage. Yesterday, all three learnt who they will be facing in their groups. Aris was drawn in Group B against Spain’s Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen from Germany and Rosenborg of Norway. PAOK is in Group D along with Villarreal from Spain, Club Brugge of Belgium and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb. AEK will face Zenit St Petersburg from Russia, Anderlecht of Belgium and Croatia’s Hajduk Split. Aris, which knocked out Austria Vienna, faces the daunting task of having to play last season’s Europa League winners home and away. Led by Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, who was voted the best player at this summer’s World Cup, the Spanish powerhouse will be the clear favorite to win the group. However, Bayer Leverkusen is also an experienced campaigner in European competition although it did lose to Greek opposition – AEK and Olympiakos – on the two occasions it played in Greece during the last decade. This year, the German club will be strengthened by the return of former German national team captain Michael Ballack from Chelsea. Rosenberg, by far Norway’s most successful side, will also prove tough opposition. In six games against Greek opposition in the Champions League, it has only lost once. After overcoming the mighty Fenerbahce of Turkey on Thursday, PAOK probably felt that it deserved an easy draw and the Thessaloniki club’s group certainly seems to be easier than that of its local rival Aris. Villarreal is the top-seeded team in the group. Known as the «Yellow Submarine,» the Spanish club has excelled in Europe in recent years, reaching the semifinals of the Champions League in 2006. However, Villarreal is substantially weaker these days and finished only seventh in the Spanish League last season. Brugge also has plenty of European experience but missed out on the Belgian championship last season, finishing second. Dinamo Zagreb is also one of Croatia’s top clubs, currently sitting fourth in the local league, but neither of these teams is vastly superior to PAOK. AEK, which eliminated Dundee United of Scotland, probably has a taller order in its group, as it has to take on Belgian champion Anderlecht, which was knocked out of the Champions League in the qualifying stages by Partizan Belgrade on penalties. Anderlecht has won the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, once in its history. Zenit St Petersburg will also pose a challenge to the Yellows. The Russians won the Europa League in 2008 and beat AEK 5-1 in the same tournament in 2004-5. The next year, Zenit knocked AEK out of the tournament. Hajduk Split may not be Croatia’s most famous team but it does have a strong pedigree, with six local leagues and five cups to its name. The first round of games will be on September 16. The second match day will be on September 30 and the remaining four games will be played on October 21, November 4, December 1 or 2, and December 15 or 16. On Thursday, Greek champion Panathinaikos also learned its fate in the Champions League draw. The Greeks will play Spanish champion Barcelona, Danish side FC Copenhagen and Rubin Kazan of Russia. FC Copenhagen won the Danish Superliga last season and has former PAO striker Dame N’Doye in its ranks. Russian champion Rubin Kazan has a multinational squad that includes Nigerian forward Obafemi Martins. Clearly though, the games against Barcelona will be the ones to capture the imagination. The Greens have played the Spanish giants twice before in the Champions League, in the 2001/2 season and in 2005/6. In the most recent encounters, PAO held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw in Athens but succumbed to a 5-0 defeat in Catalonia. However, it is the games in April 2002 that Greens fans will remember most, when their side came close to knocking Barca out in the quarterfinals. PAO had won the home leg 1-0 but despite taking the lead at Barcelona’s Camp Nou, they eventually lost 3-1 and were knocked out. Panathinaikos will begin its Champions League campaign at the Camp Nou on September 14. This will be followed by a home game against Copenhagen on September 29 and another game at the Olympic Stadium in Athens on October 20. The Greens were also due to get the domestic Super League season under way yesterday night with a home game against Xanthi. Today, it will be: Larissa vs Atromitos, Panionios vs Olympiakos Volou and Iraklis vs Olympiakos. Tomorrow, the games to be played are: Ergotelis vs Asteras Tripolis, PAOK vs Panserraikos, Kavala vs Aris and Kerkyra vs AEK. Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that Panathinaikos had agreed to sign Spanish forward Luis Garcia from Atletico Madrid. The former Liverpool player is due in Athens today to complete the deal.
