NCTJ Trainee Sports Journalist of the Year 2023 🏆
Trying to think of something pithy, but words are failing me this time. Congratulations to everyone nominated and big thanks to
@NewsAssociates
once again!
#StartedHere
#TeamNA
Trainloads of Olympiacos fans heading SOUTH from Karaiskakis to congregate in Pasalimani at well past midnight. Nobody does celebrating like the Greeks.
PAOK were given a 12.7% chance of qualifying tonight.
Olympiacos were given a 2.5% chance.
For both to qualify? 0.3%
What a night for Greek football 🇬🇷
[
@OptaAnalyst
]
The bar in Mikrolimano, where I’m watching Olympiakos v Aston Villa, has just exploded 💥
Fans are cheering every good tackle, pass and save like the players can hear it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they could.
🔴 1st ever UEFA semi-final
⚪️ 1st win in England by more than one goal
🔴 2nd club defeated on English soil
⚪️ Most goals scored against English opposition
An incredible performance and an incredible night for Olympiacos!
Dominant even before Kondogbia's red card, Panathinaikos take a deserved 1-0 first-leg lead to Marseille next week
PAO 🟢⚪️ - OM 🔵⚪️
Shots
14 - 1
Possession
67% - 33%
Passes
570 - 281
If AEK win their final two games, they win the league 🏆
If Olympiacos win their final three games, they win the league 🏆
If PAOK win their final three games AND AEK fail to beat Olympiacos, they win the league 🏆
Panathinaikos need a miracle 🙏
I’m sorry but what makes that AEK victory even more ridiculous is they did it WITHOUT first-choice CBs Vida and Moukoudi
Forget Brighton missing Lewis Dunk, AEK had a makeshift MIDFIELDER next to a 23-year-old who played 8 matches last season
Just insane
That 2-1 win over West Ham makes it SIX English sides who have gone to Piraeus and come away with nothing 🔴⚪️
The others?
Arsenal (x3)
Burnley
Liverpool
Man Utd
Tottenham
Only four English clubs have ever won there 🏰
One thing that may be (understandably) missed tonight is that Olympiacos needed to beat Villa in BOTH legs for Greece to have a hope of two Champions League places.
They'd never beaten an English team home AND away in a single season before tonight.
What a finish that is from Ioannidis to beat a 41-year-old Pepe Reina (?!)
That’s 7 goals or assists in 429 mins for the PAO striker (23) this season ☘️
A G/A every 61 minutes‼️
🚨 Olympiacos fans, you might want to buy
@WorldSoccerMag
Season Review 2023/24 out NOW‼️
👀 Here is a sneak peek at my EyeWitness feature, but there’s also a full Conference League final review and a closer look at Ayoub El Kaabi’s remarkable career
I CANNOT believe I missed AEK’s win over Brighton
Make no mistake though, Matias Almeyda has built a serious football team.
“This is a team that has a future. This is a club that can get big wins in Europe” - Vaggelis, May 2023, FourFourTwo 🟡⚫️
Credit to Podence
Credit to Retsos
Credit to El Kaabi
Credit to every single player, in fact
But make no mistake, José Luis Mendilibar was the reason Olympiacos won that match.
Ex-AEK forward Karim Ansarifard misses a free header from 6 yards in the 95', which would've handed the trophy to his former club
The Super League changed hands FOUR times on the final day. PAOK win their 2nd title in 39 years🏆
The most exciting title race in Europe, bar none
Do you know how complacent you have to be to concede three goals at home to not even the best team in Andorra??
Thank god AEK weren't playing UE Santa Coloma..
If Greece qualify for Euro 2024 through the playoffs, they will play Turkey in their opening match at the Westfalenstadion...
The two have never faced one another in a major international tournament 😬🇬🇷🇹🇷
FT: AEK 2-0 PAOK
Amazingly, despite playing with 10 men for 84 mins, AEK score twice, win the cup and complete the double - just the third in their history and their first since 1978.
The most relieved man in Volos is Lazaros Rota...
Not usually one for plugging my work on here but my debut for
@WorldSoccerMag
feels pretty special
The Greek Super League is the title race you never knew you needed. Pyrotechnics, scandal and shiny new stadia all feature.
Big thanks to
@Kessaris_
and
@dimitrisvergos
🇬🇷⚽️🧨🏟️
I love that this is being treated as deranged (which it is) by the English media. This is, and I'm not exaggerating in the slightest, decidedly tame by Greek football standards.
Marinakis changing the face of the Premier League, one passive-aggressive statement at a time ✍️
Ajax and Panathinaikos just set a new record for the longest penalty shoot-out in UEFA history.
After 34 spotkicks, Ajax progress 13-12. Brian Brobbey missed TWICE 🤯
Someone should tell Greece that ideally they needed this sort of performance BEFORE qualifying for the Euros ended...
At HT, Hellas currently 1-0 up against Germany in Mönchengladbach, and good value for it too:
Shots
🇩🇪3-8🇬🇷
On target
🇩🇪1-5🇬🇷
Touches in box
🇩🇪6-10🇬🇷
🔨 At the age of 21, Ayoub El Kaabi gave up carpentry and signed his first pro football contract in Casablanca
🇲🇦 He was playing in the Moroccan top flight 3 years ago
🏆 He has just won Olympiacos' first ever European trophy - in his first ever campaign in a UEFA competition
For those of you wondering about permutations:
⚫️ If PAOK beat Aris, PAOK win the league
🟡 If PAOK don't beat Aris and AEK beat Lamia, AEK win the league
This is because AEK have a better head-to-head GD vs PAOK by ONE goal
Some say this is the warm up, others the main course…
Athens Kallithea v Chania
1st v 2nd
A draw would be ENOUGH to confirm promotion to the top flight for Kallithea, only the second in their history 🔵⚪️
Accreditation has let me down for the Olympiacos v Aston Villa match this Thursday 😰
Any OLY fans got recommendations for bars in Piraeus to watch the match with fans?
RTs much appreciated!
@HellasFooty
@Gate7Intl
@OlympiacosEU
Olympiacos U19s are tearing AC Milan apart in the Youth League final btw. Three goals in six second-half minutes have put them 3-0 up.
Theofanis Bakoulas, 19, just executed a stunning bicycle kick to make it three 💫
Not bad for a club who had never reached the semi-finals!
That's the fourth time AEK have conceded an equaliser after 85' in the last four months
89' v PAOK
90+4' v Panserraikos
85' v Kifisia
90+7' v Aris
With four points separating first and fourth going into the playoffs, those eight points dropped could make all the difference
Congratulations to Olympiacos U19s who became the first Greek side to reach the UEFA Youth League semi-finals with a 3-1 win over Bayern Munich
Midfielder Christos Mouzakitis (17) and striker Charalampos Kostoulas (16) both have 5 goals in 6 Youth League games this season 👏
As manager of Panathinaikos, new Greek national team manager Ivan Jovanovic beat Marseille and Villarreal.
As APOEL manager, he beat FC Copenhagen, Zenit St. Petersburg, Porto and Lyon. APOEL also drew away at Chelsea and went unbeaten against Atl Madrid.
The man gets results.
BREAKING 🚨 ✍️🇬🇷
Former Panathinaikos manager Ivan Jovanovic is the new manager of the Ethniki! The Serbian coach & EPO came to an agreement of a 2 year deal.
Thoughts on this appointment Ethniki fans? 🤔
Delighted to say I've been shortlisted for the NCTJ Awards for Excellence in the Sports Journalism category!
I suppose this means getting my rental car door dinged in Volos was all worth it in the end 😅
@NewsAssociates
The shortlist for the 2023 Awards for Excellence is here! 🌟
Congratulations to the 55 students, trainees, apprentices and training providers who have made it onto this year's shortlist.
We look forward to celebrating with you at the ceremony in 2024.
View the Awards for
A very pleasant and slightly surreal experience to be on the other side of the questions for this piece by
@Kapoukakis_G
for
@BNsportsGr
Γιατί ασχολούμαι εγώ, ένας Άγγλος, με το ελληνικό ποδόσφαιρο; Διαβάστε το 👇
Extraodinary.
🔴 Olympiacos' hero Kostas Tzolakis had faced eight senior penalties before tonight and only saved one.
⚪️ The 21-year-old just saved three in five to knock out Fenerbahce
That miraculous 6-1 win over Robbie Keane's Maccabi Tel Aviv is Olympiacos' biggest EVER win in Europe 🔴⚪️
It's also only the SECOND time Thrylos have scored six goals in UEFA competitions
(*both excluding qualifying rounds)
AEK incredibly lucky with two shocking refereeing decisions vs Olympiakos. Still 2-1 ahead.
On the other hand, Olympiakos are lucky there are no fans in the stadium. The riot would be worth a five point deduction at the very least.
At the top of the Greek Super League three teams are joint second, seven points behind the undefeated Panathinaikos
One of them are AEK who have waited 20 years to host the Athenian derby at their own ground
AEK have won every match at the brand new OPAP Arena…
#AEKPAO
Value of Brighton squad: €376.3 million
Value of AEK squad: €62.1 million
Value of entire Greek Super League: €414.35 million
Yes, there's a big difference
But NEVER take him off the pitch
Two quick-fire headers takes his tally for the season to 11 from just 717 minutes - a goal every 65 minutes 💥
Next best in the Super League?
🟡Ezequiel Ponce: 101 mins
🟢Andraz Sporar: 120 mins
⚫️Kiril Despodov: 134 mins
(min 400 mins played)
I love Levi Garcia. One of the best players in the league.
But he should be taken off penalties - that's 4 missed in his last 11 or a 64% success rate, well below the 80% average.
Tragic news from Athens.
Michalis, an AEK fan in his 20s, was stabbed to death in clashes with Dinamo Zagreb ultras yesterday evening.
The worst part is this is by no means the first fan in Greece who has lost their life over football.
Nasos, Tosko, Alki... How many more?
🇬🇷 'GOD WAS SLEEPING'
Greece completed the biggest
#Euros
shock with their win against Portugal in the 2004 final.
@A_McQuarrie
explains what it means to Greeks on 'The Greatest' — our pod ranking the tournament's best ever players, teams and moments.
Despite securing European football for next season, Olympiacos finish outside the top two in successive seasons for the first time since 1994 - 30 years.
Not sure their fans will care that much if they win the Conference League at Agia Sophia 😅
🚨BREAKING: The Greek government just announced that ALL Super League games will be played without fans until February 12.
European games will also be affected.
The decision comes after the violent incidents that occured during volleyball derby between Olympiakos and PAO.
#SLGR
Olympiacos have the opportunity to make it Greece's most successful single season in Europe since 2008 🇬🇷
But looking at the history of Greece's coefficient ranking, one thing stands out - what on earth happened last season?? 📉
📝 With Greece out of the Euro 2024 qualifiers,
@A_McQuarrie
writes another post-match reaction that reflects all our disappointment 🇬🇷
#Greece
#Euro2024
Olympiacos vanquish Villa, Kallithea clinch promotion, and PAOK push for the title.
What a season it has been and what a podcast from
@SteveKountourou
,
@alainb_paris
and your boy in Angistri!🏝️
🚨 NEW HELLAS FOOTBALL PODCAST EP🎙🇬🇷
The boys return to chat about Greek football the gift that keeps on giving 🎁
Olympiakos reach the
#UECL
Final 🌐
AEK & PAOK duke it out for the title 🏆
Kallithea back in the big time 📤
➡️
#hellasfootypod
For those of you who missed my debut on
@CBSSportsGolazo
last night 📺
Fans will return to Greek stadiums next week on Shrove Tuesday. Will the governement's measures work or will they fall flat as a pancake? 🇬🇷🥞
A reminder of how we got to this point 👇
Just when you think you've heard it all, Greek football continues to surprise you 🇬🇷
A rollercoaster of a season culminated in a miraculous win for
@AEK_FC_OFFICIAL
. The only problem? Hardly anyone was there to see it.
Thanks to
@FourFourTwo
,
@Kessaris_
and
@dimitrisvergos
@jessyjph
@RichJLaverty
@edmccambridge
@CFlanaganFFT
@LeoMoynihan
📖 NEW ISSUE
🇬🇷 GREEK CUP FINAL CHAOS
The Greek Cup has become so venomous that Serbia, Australia and even Selhurst Park were sounded out in a desperate quest to find a venue for this year’s final. FFT went to find out why
This would SMASH Panathinaikos’ record sale, almost FIVE times the fee received for Djibril Cisse and almost SEVEN times that of Alexandropoulos 🤯
Fotis is not 21 anymore. I think it’s time to cash in 💰
📰 Premier League side Leicester City has offered €27 million for Greek international striker Fotis Ioannidis 🇬🇷⏭️🦊❓️
Should Panathinaikos hold out for more or is this an offer they can't refuse? Give us your thoughts 🤔
#LCFC
#Ioannidis
#paofc
#SLGR
#epl
Ahead of their Champions League debut tonight, a brief word about
@ArisLimassol
- a club who had 9 promotions and 9 relegations in 19 years
While others in Cyprus are wrestling w/ spiralling debt and hooliganism, Aris are showing how a club should be run
Best of luck v BATE 🟢
"
@ArisLimassol
is a family club. Their identity is built around inclusivity and sticking with the club through the bad times and the worse."
@A_McQuarrie
reports on Cyprus' new champions in our summer issue:
You might have heard that
@LewesFCWomen
are the first club to pay their men's and women's teams equally, but did you know about their 170 solar panels and community garden? 🫒
My debut for
@ftblforfuture
here:
Olympiacos certainly grew into their 1-0 win over Ferencvaros and deserve their lead
BUT it was very much a match of one moment
Rodinei created a better chance for El Kaabi's goal (0.83xG) than the other *16* shots put together (0.73xG)
Olympiakos v Panathinaikos abandoned at 50’ after a firecracker explodes, injuring PAO substitute Juankar
Greek football having a normal one again I see 🤦♂️
Having played the same number of games in UEFA competitions, AEK Athens have suffered more losses and had two fewer wins than Greece at the OPAP Arena 🏟️
AEK 🟡⚫️
W: 0 D: 2 L: 2
Greece 🇬🇷
W: 2 D: 1 L: 1
Olympiacos write history 🖊️
That 3-2 win over Fenerbahce was the club's FIRST in a European quarter-final at the fifth attempt 🔴⚪️
Karaiskakis definitely played its part - Fenerbahce are somehow still unbeaten away in the Super Lig, collecting 43/45 points this season 🏟️
HUGE night in Europe for Panathinaikos and AEK Athens tonight, both with a lot to fight for v Marseille and v Dinamo Zagreb 🏆
The Super League is BACK. OFI v Aris my pick of the matches this weekend.
Kifisia and Lamia to struggle this season? ⬇️
🚨 NEW HELLAS FOOTY PODCAST EPISODE OUT NOW!
Feat. special guest
@A_McQuarrie
🇪🇺 Strong showing in Europe for Greek clubs
🇬🇷 Super League starts this weekend
🔴⚪️ ➡️ 🇸🇦 Fortounis to Saudi Arabia?
❓ Fan questions & much more!
❗LINK BELOW ❗
Calling all resident and adopted Athenians!
I'll be in your city next week for a bumper football trip. Apart from seeing four games, I've got a lot of free time for a coffee/drink/chat. DM me if you're about, esp OLY fans!
RTs much appreciated!
@HellasFooty
#journorequests
🇬🇷 20 years today since the biggest shock in international football history 🏆
👑 If you haven’t already, check out the King Otto documentary, available on BBC iPlayer here:
🇬🇷 'GOD WAS SLEEPING'
Greece completed the biggest
#Euros
shock with their win against Portugal in the 2004 final.
@A_McQuarrie
explains what it means to Greeks on 'The Greatest' — our pod ranking the tournament's best ever players, teams and moments.
After a wretched week, PAOK respond with an astonishing 5-1 (5-3 agg) trouncing of Dinamo Zagreb at Toumba ⚫️
Oh, and they deserved it 👇
Shots: 18
Big chances: 7
xG: 3.02
@tetshsjdjf69528
I’m a Liverpool fan mate ahaha
What’s weird is the first six times Arsenal played Olympiacos, the home team won. The away team has won all six games since then 🤷♂️
After just one season with Olympiacos, Ayoub El Kaabi goes level with Kostas Fortounis for goals scored in UEFA competitions - joint 5th with 13 goals ⚽️⚽️⚽️
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was seen on the pitch following Liverpool's late winner at the City Ground with the coach Steven Reid seeing a post-match Red card 🟥
I love Levi Garcia. One of the best players in the league.
But he should be taken off penalties - that's 4 missed in his last 11 or a 64% success rate, well below the 80% average.
This might not look it, but this is the biggest match these Aris Limassol fans have ever been to
A club with a 93-year history on the brink of their first ever league title
The highest they’ve ever finished is FOURTH - 2 games to go, 3pts ahead of APOEL
This is huge 🟢⚪️
⏰710 minutes over 22 podcasts streamed in 59 countries across 6 continents
🌍Shout-out to our listeners from Nepal, Mauritania, Kuwait and Costa Rica
It was a joy to host and edit
@EuroZoneShow
and you can listen to our final episode (for now) here ⬇️
3,900 words, 700km driven, 9 gyros, 7 hotels, 5 cities, 4 flights, 3 goals, 2 features coming soon, and 1 tired freelancer
Farhad, Dimitris, Vaggelis, Stelios, Themis, Kostas, Stel, Iro, Konstantin thank you
But I really don’t know what I would’ve done without you Pistachio ❤️
After almost 98 years of existence, Panetolikos reach their first ever Greek Cup semi-finals 🏆
The Canaries are struggling in the league at the moment, but will face Aris - who haven't won the cup since 1970 - next month 🐤
I love Levi Garcia. One of the best players in the league.
But he should be taken off penalties - that's 4 missed in his last 11 or a 64% success rate, well below the 80% average.
Greek Cup Final (behind closed doors)
AEK 1-0 PAOK
The sign to the left reads:
‘I ❤️ Volos - Football is a celebration, not violence’
Unfortunately, without fans, this is neither…
Result harsh on the Greeks who defended superbly throughout
Thought Ioannidis was sublime - so physically strong, great link up play, tireless without the ball and caused Ake plenty of problems running in behind
Would Giakoumakis have provided more of a goal threat? Possibly