Mixed start for Greek teams in Europe
Greek teams returned to European competitions this week but showed that they do not travel so well and should do all the work at home at this early stage of the new season.
In the second qualifying round of the Champions League Olympiakos drew 1-1 with Maccabi Haifa in Israel on Wednesday. In a fairly poor game for the Greek champion, the Reds were fortunate enough to lead from the 7th minute with a goal by new signing Philip Zinckernagel. The hosts pushed for an equalizer and managed to find it through a lucky overhead flick by Dolev Haziza in time added-on.
The winner of this tie will face Cypriot champion Apollon Limassol in the third qualifying round.
On Thursday, in the Europa Conference League, PAOK lost 2-0 at Levski and Aris won 5-1 at home over Gomel.
PAOK conceded twice in the first 20 minutes in Sofia to lose to a more determined and better prepared Levski. The Greek team’s defensive errors proved costly as Welton and Bilal Bari made the most of them and PAOK proved unable to respond.
Aris, on the other hand, did respond to Gomel’s early lead through a Fabiano own goal for the Belarussians on the 11th minute.
The Thessaloniki team, fielding a team without a single Greek player, got two goals from Andre Anthony Gray and one each from Juan Iturbe, Rafael Camacho and Luis Palma to all but seal its qualification to the next round.
All three return games of the Greek teams are held next week.
