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Salpigidis goal gives Greece win over Czechs in friendly

Posted by evdomada on February 6, 2008

NICOSIA, Feb 5 (Reuters)

Substitute Dimitrios Salpigidis’ second-half strike gave Greece a 1-0 win over the Czech Republic in a friendly in Cyprus on Tuesday.

The Panathinaikos striker got on the end of a cross from Nicos Lymperopoulos and his low shot bounced off Czech goalkeeper Jaromir Blazek’s legs into the net in the 78th minute.

In a slow-paced match, the first shot on goal came in the 25th minute when Lymperopoulos sent his long shot high.

The best chance for the Czech Republic came in the 30th minute when midfielder Lubos Kalouda crossed from the right to striker Martin Fenin, who only had the goalkeeper to beat but sent his shot wide.

The sides were meeting for the first time since Greece beat the Czech Republic in their Euro 2004 semi-final.

Source: Reuters Football

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Euroleague Basket: Top 16 Draw

Posted by evdomada on February 6, 2008

The draw for the Euroleague Top 16 has taken place.  I have posted here a brief analysis from each of the groups from euroleague.net.

For each of the groups there is a link to read up on the reactions from the clubs about their draw in the Top 16 of the Euroleague phase.

GROUP D

  • Panathinaikos
  • Montepaschi Siena
  • Efes Pilsen
  • Partizan Igokea

Reigning Euroleague champion Panathinaikos will look to repeat, but it must first get through Italian champion Montepaschi Siena, Serbian champion Partizan Igokea and rival Efes Pilsen. Games between Panathinaikos and Partizan are always interesting, since the Greens’ head coach, Zeljko Obradovic, got his start with Partizan. The two played two entertaining games in Group C this season, though the Greek champs won both. Panathinaikos beat out Efes in a thrilling three-game Quarterfinal Playoffs series in 2005. Meanwhile Montepaschi has survived some injuries and rebounded to become a dangerous challenger as well. All the teams here are noted home court sides, which should produce much exciting basketball.

Group D – Draw reactions

GROUP E

  • Lietuvos Rytas
  • Tau Ceramica
  • Fenerbahce Ulker
  • Aris TT Bank

Lietuvos Rytas will look to reach new heights from Group E, but one of the teams it will need to beat to get there is Tau Ceramica. Head coach Neven Spahija of Tau was on the L. Rytas bench two seasons ago when it reached the Top 16 for the first time. On paper, L. Rytas and Tau, which has made three consecutive Final Four appearances, are the favorites, however with some of the best young big men in Europe, Fenerbahce Ulker is also hungry to win. Meanwhile Aris TT Bank, which arrives from Group B of the regular season together with L. Rytas, is making its second consecutive Top 16 appearance. Aris made some late regular season roster moves and could turn into a big contender in the playoff race.

Group E – Draw reactions

GROUP F

  • Real Madrid
  • Maccabi Elite
  • Zalgiris
  • Olympiacos

With three domestic champions, Group F will be one of the toughest of the Top 16. The Top seed is Spanish champion Real Madrid, which as the winningest club in European basketball history and being from the host city of the Final Four, will be ready for all comers. One of those is Israel champ Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, which finished the regular season with five straight wins. Madrid and Maccabi will renew a classic rivalry, which saw them meet in the 1980 Euroleague title game. Another set of rivals is Maccabi and Lithuanian champ Zalgiris Kaunas, which saw its spot in the 2004 Final Four taken away at the last possible second on Derrick Sharp’s miracle three-pointer in the Top 16 finale that season. Meanwhile Olympiacos Piraeus, which like Zalgiris is from Group A, will look to make a big splash under new head coach Panagiotis Giannakis.

Group F – Draw reactions

GROUP G

  • CSKA Moscow
  • Unicaja
  • AXA FC Barcelona
  • Lottomatica Roma

Group G features a rematch of last season’s Euroleague Basketball Final Four semifinals between CSKA Moscow and Unicaja. CSKA, the 2006 Euroleague champion, is one of the teams to beat in the competition and is looking for a record-breaking sixth consecutive Final Four appearance. The matchup between Unicaja and AXA FCBarcelona is also with plenty of history, as the former beat the latter in an exciting three-game Quarterfinal Playoffs series last season. Lottomatica Roma, which arrived from Group C of the regular season together with Barcelona, is also an exciting game for that club with a handful of former Barca stars on the Roma roster.

Group G – Draw reactions

Source: Euroleague.net

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Legend Giannakis to coach Olympiakos

Posted by evdomada on February 6, 2008

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Panagiotis Giannakis

Olympiacos Piraeus announced on Sunday that Greek icon Panagiotis Giannakis has taken over the bench after Pini Gershon was dismissed the day before. The 49-year-old Giannakis also serves as the Greek national team coach. His arrival was made official after Giannakis ran the team’s Sunday evening practice. His first game in charge will be a Greek Cup showdown on Wednesday against Aris TT Bank.

On Tuesday, Giannakis addressed the press for the first time as Olympiacos head coach. “I feel very honored because Olympiacos trusts me to take over the team and to lead it to the best possible results,” Giannakis said. “Now we have to work hard and try to reach all our goals, which are still open. The team has talent and potential and I am here to give my best for a better future. Olympiacos deserves to return on the top and I am dedicated to this target. My only advice to the players is to stay focused, to work without panic and pressure and to have every day a better practice than the previous.”

Giannakis had a legendary career as a player, during which he won his country’s first Euroleague crown, a European national title, a Cup Winners’ Cup and more than dozen Greek League and Greek Cup titles. He played for Ionikos Nikaia, Aris, Panionios, Panathinaikos and the Greek national team during his 25-year career. As a coach, he guided Greece to the crown at the 2005 EuroBasket and to the silver medal at 2006 World Championships in Japan. He last coached at the club level for Maroussi Athens between 2002 and 2006.

Source: Euroleague.net

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“Eternals” derby ends in a draw: Olympiakos 1-1 Panathinaikos

Posted by evdomada on January 14, 2008

The second derby between the Superleague giants was played this morning at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Phaliron.  Their first encounter in this season ended 0-0 at Leoforos so both teams were eager for the points this time around to keep close with the league leaders AEK, who incidentally easily defeated Veroia 5-1 on Saturday night.

The game started explosively with both teams creating chances within the first 5 minutes of the game.

Panathinaikos scored first and had easily had created more trouble for Olympiakos in the first 15 minutes and were rewarded.  It’s unfortunate that although they did deserve to score, the goal in my opinion is dubious as the ball did cross the line as it was crossed to Ndoye who netted the goal.

Luckily for us gavrous, we were able to equalise at the end of the first half thanks to a Paraskeva Antzas goalmouth scramble.  This time the Panathinaikos players were screaming foul as they believed that Torosidis fouled the goalkeeper.  Being very biased, it looked like Torosidis stood his ground and the goalkeeper fell by himself.

There were no more goals to be seen in the second half but most reports described the game as a great advertisement for Greek football.

A penalty was rightfully awarded to Panathinaikos but Nikopolidis was able to stop Papadopoulos’ spot kick.

Click here to go to www.sport.gr to watch a few highlights clips.

sport@skylproductions.com

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Argentina midfielder Belluschi signs for Olympiakos

Posted by evdomada on January 9, 2008

By Barney Spender
ATHENS, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Greek champions Olympiakos Piraeus have signed Argentina international midfielder Fernando Belluschi on a four-and-a-half year contract, the club said on Tuesday.

No details of the fee to be paid to his previous club River Plate have been made public but reports in the Greek media said it could reach 6.5 million euros.

“I am very happy. I was really anxious for the negotiations to be completed,” Belluschi, 24, told reporters.
“Now I just want to get involved in training as soon as possible.”

Belluschi, who has two caps, is unlikely to feature in the derby against Panathinaikos at the weekend but should play a part in Olympiakos plans against Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League next month.

“It is a dream for every Argentine footballer to play in Europe,” he said. “I feel lucky and happy to be here and hope that I can reproduce the form I had in Argentina.”

Greek media have reported Olympiakos are negotiating with another Argentine, Sergio Almiron who joined Juventus for nine million euros in June but has only played three times.

Source http://football.uk.reuters.com/

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Olympiakos finally get through the Champions League group stage

Posted by evdomada on December 14, 2007

Usually a story like this would have been posted immediately but I decided to let it sink in and enjoy the moment.  Some, especially PAO fans, would say what’s the big deal?  But for a suffering Olympiakos fan – in Europe I should add – we have been waiting for this for a very, very long time.

Olympiakos managed a 3-0 victory over Werder Bremen at the Karaiskaki and it gave them the valuable 2nd spot in the group.  The next game, no matter who we are drawn with, will be very difficult and I don’t fancy our chances.

However, let’s not worry about next February when the Champions League resumes.  Let’s enjoy the qualification to the top 16 in Europe.

Let’s also enjoy these 2 videos that capture the joyous victories that have finally given us a reason to celebrate.

Make sure the volume is up and load!!

Werder 1 – 3 Olympiakos

Olympiakos 3 – 0 Werder

Posted in Europe Sport, Greek Sport, Sport | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

FIFA World Cup 2010: Ellas Group Draw

Posted by evdomada on December 5, 2007

Amongst all the celebrations of qualifying for the Euro 2008 tournament we also had the draw for the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying stages.

Ellas has been given a relatively favourable draw based on its strong rankings in this draw.  It’s not an easy group but we have avoided the major super giants of Europe.

Ellas has been drawn with Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg

The traditionally strongest teams that we will have to face are Israel and Switzerland but these days you can never underestimate any team.

Click here for the complete table of the European qualifying groups for the FIFA World Cup 2010.

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Euro 2008: The Draw

Posted by evdomada on December 5, 2007

The draw for Euro 2008 has come and gone.

I have never watched the draw on television before and I don’t think I will rush to do it again.  In fact I fell asleep after Zagorakis walked onto the stage as the last of the captains of the Euro champions.

Ellas has been drawn again with Spain and Russia as they were for Euro 2004 and also with Sweden.  It’s not an easy group and the Euro champions will have to work hard to get through to the next stage.

If Ellas do manage to get through the group stage, they will face one of two teams from the “group of death”.

The teams drawn in the “group of death” are the Netherlands, Italy, Romania and France.  The confidence gained by getting through this group will definitely be a big morale boost.  A difficult task indeed for our beloved Ellas.

These are the final groups that were drawn for Euro 2008.

Euro 2008 Draw - uefa.com

Table source – uefa.com

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Euro 2008 – Ellas and Finals Seedings

Posted by evdomada on November 22, 2007

Ellas defeated Hungary 1-2 in Budapest and qualified for Euro 2008 with the highest points tally (31 pts) of all teams in the qualification team. All 3 goals were quite scrappy, 2 own goals and a penalty that Gekas won and Basinas scored for Ellas to take the lead.

As European Champions and a good coefficient, Ellas has been placed in the top group of seedings for the draw.

Austria and Switzerland as hosts are in the top group along with the Netherlands.

Here is a table of the teams that qualified and their seedings.

euro2008.jpg

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England loss to Croatia

Posted by evdomada on November 22, 2007

England will not be travelling to Austria & Switzerland next summer for the Euro 2008 Championship.  Croatia proved a worthy opponent defeating England 2-3 away from home.

The loss has meant that Steve McLaren has been dismissed as the coach along with his assistan Terry Venables.  The search for a new coach has already commenced but it seems that they will not be rushing to any decision just as yet.

It’s the first time since USA 94 that the English will not be competing in a major football tournament.

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