Lamia shocks Olympiakos to dump it out of Cup
Lamia added another major scalp to its collection in the Greek Cup this year, as it followed up the elimination of Panathinaikos with a shock win at Olympiakos on Thursday, to see the central Greece team through to the tournament’s semis and the Reds crash out. Lamia has joined AEK, PAOK and Asteras Tripolis in the semifinal line-up.
Olympiakos had got a 3-3 draw at Lamia in the first leg, and needed to keep a clean sheet to go through, but managed to score no goals in 28 attempts whereas Lamia transformed the single chance it created into the game’s only goal with Joan Tomas to win 1-0 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.
Lamia, whose keeper Bojan Saranov saved an 87th minute penalty by Costas Fortounis, has therefore advanced to the last four of the Cup for the first time in its history, with a 4-3 aggregate score.
PAOK very nearly fell victim of an upset at home too, but managed to see off Panionios in extra time scoring two goals after the 113rd minute on Wednesday. The Cup holder won 4-2 to overturn Panionios’s 2-1 advantage from the first leg at Nea Smyrni.
PAOK advanced with Diego Biseswar, a minute later Fiorin Durmishaj equalized, and Karol Swiderski sent the game to extra time (2-1) eight minutes from the end. Then Oumar Camara made it 2-2 for Panionios, but a Chuba Akpom strike and a highly controversial penalty PAOK earned and Adelino Vieirinha converted two minutes from time gave PAOK a memorable comeback at Toumba.
In protest Panionios refused to resume the game after the penalty conversion and the referee simply ended the game.
Earlier on Wednesday Asteras Tripolis had trounced second-division Ergotelis 4-1 and on Tuesday AEK saw off Atromitos at home, for a 4-0 aggregate result, goals coming twice from Petros Mantalos and once from Ezequiel Ponce.
