Okay I got to rant a lot because some of the Conference League games are taking YEARS off my life expectancy.
But before said rant something positive was that we managed to bring the Greek Super League back to Olympiacos successfully with a win over OFI. There was a first chance against Panathanaikos but results didn’t go our way. But they did against OFI where we needed to win and we did in fairly emphatic fashion
(See the accuracy there, 8/20 shots on target? Hold that thought the more you read)
After a shock loss of the lead we brought it ahead before half time thankfully with Dia and a Yazici penalty and in the end another Dia goal along with a powerful header from Kumbulla sealed the points and with that: THE SUPER LEAGUE WAS BACK WHERE IT BELONGS.
After spending close to flipping 50M in the summer and January this was the bare minimum honestly and I’m glad we made it through and brought back the Super League. And as always it’s a nice feeling for the Don to be satisfied after spending so much money 😅.
Before I rant about what happened in the Conference League, we did have a few humdingers after the frustrations of those knockout games and it was after we sealed the title and it was the Athens derby against AEK which was another one where they scored first and we still brought it back.
Our Greek homegrown striker was the saving grace when Dia was stinking it up when it really mattered. I’ll be glad when he’s gone because I am bringing in 2 strikers who are taller than him for free in the summer.
Our rivalry didn’t stop there because in the Greek Cup semi final we nudged them out on aggregate because THIS happened in the second leg:
Heart was racing because our first leg was just a narrow 1-0 win at home. The second leg had it all. They pull it back by scoring first and then we score 2 to put ourselves ahead thanks to Dia and our captain fantastic Yazici which meant our aggregate stood at 3-1. And it was close again when they scored again almost before half time which meant our aggregate lead was only 1. Then a heart in mouth moment when Karrikaburu scored but our offside trap was well played and it was offside.
And in the end our win was solidified after a well taken corner which was headed home by Chust.
Alright now to the elephant in the room. The Conference League knockouts
We went through the Round of 16 match against Bodo/Glimt fairly comfortably even if the second match wound up being a draw our aggregate was healthy.
First leg was where we did all the work honestly
And the second leg wound up being a draw and somehow we didn’t score more given we were at home.
Our lack of lethal edge is really worrying me and later on you’ll see why the worry was justified.
After this we were drawn against LASK and given I have enabled the Austrian Bundesliga they are a full team. They were roughly top 4 or top 5 in their league so I thought we’d have a good defensive performance and also score in the other end given our form. Well that’s where you were MAJORLY wrong.
I usually perform well against a 4-4-2 because it is an easy formation to be dominant against. If you know the place to attack them and given I played with 2 attacking midfielders it should be straightforward but seeing our UTTERLY SHAMBOLIC 40% shooting accuracy I was RIGHTFULLY INFURIATED. I click work into box but what do my DUMB PLAYERS do? Shoot from everywhere 😠. Because there is HONESTLY no other explanation on how we have 22 FREAKING SHOTS with only 9 on target and even with that 9 we made their keeper look good and NEVER PUT THEM AWAY. In the end our vice captain Vezo from the corner managed to finally break the deadlock. Given it was at home to boot it was worrying me and the second leg showed I was right to worry. Because let me tell you IT ALL KICKED OFF.
This. THIS is what I meant when I said the Conference League games are taking years off my life expectancy. This time our shooting accuracy was 50% but we WERE. NOT. GODDAMN. LETHAL. We made their goalie look good YET AGAIN. Even worse was when Lafont had a rush of blood to the head and let them score which did anger me. But what angered me EVEN MORE was how we never had a SINGLE. GODDAMN. HIGHLIGHT showing us even with a big chance. Dia stunk it up even worse with a big miss and also a yellow which shot his rating down to 6.3. So I rolled the dice and brought my Greek homegrown striker on. He’s only 16 but honestly he is a reliable one to bring on as fresh legs but not fully starter material yet which is to be expected. And I bring on Kumbulla because Diallo was on a yellow and he says, “yOu KnOw WhAt GaFfEr LeT mE dO bEtTeR tHaN dIaLlO aNd GeT mYsElF sEnT oFf” 😑. Believe me when I say this was my face when I saw him walk towards the dugout and into the tunnel after I subbed him on because you know, my starting defender was ONLY ON A YELLOW.
Thankfully Onyemaechi was decent enough to be at CB so I used him there trying to get a goal desperately. I managed to find a way to use the Amorim formation in the most aggressive way before this but I’ll be honest I was resigned that we are actually going to be going to extra time but the striker I put my faith in as a sub didn’t let me down thankfully and Wague found him to belt home a winner in off the post and I was relieved because trying to do THAT while a man down was GODDAMN DIFFICULT and extra time being a man down would have meant penalties and their keeper already was the hero over both legs so I wasn’t trusting us in that moment. And given we’re facing Newcastle next who dispatched Lille so easily when we only beat them 1-0 in the League Phase(I know our shooting should have been better) makes me worried our accuracy isn’t helping. Yes Newcastle are still are in the bottom half of the Premier League with Saudi money still available. But they managed to claw themselves out of the relegation zone to 15th. They are finally on the up and I hate the fact that we’re misfiring THIS close to a match like that. We have a back to back to back set of matches in the Championship Group before that match so I want to see on if our lethal edge comes back really.
Trust me. Ranting this much feels freeing after ranting about only Manchester United IRL.