|
Olympiakos
Piraeus FC 6-2 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Last season's
UEFA Champions League finalists Bayer 04 Leverkusen were brought
back down to earth with a bump as they were thrashed 6-2 in Athens
by Olympiakos Piraeus FC in Group F's opening match.
Constantly threatening
The home side
were magnificent throughout, attacking fearlessly at every opportunity
and causing their opponents no end of problems. The attacking
trio of Giovanni, Stylianos Giannakopoulos and Predrag Djordjevic
did the damage, Djordjevic claiming a deserved hat-trick and Giannakopoulos
also getting his name on the scoresheet.
Attacking
formation
Both sides
ostensibly lined up in a 4-5-1 formation, but it quickly became
obvious that, while Leverkusen intended to leave Oliver Neuville
to forage alone up front, Giovanni would enjoy close support from
Giannakopoulos on the right and Djordjevic down the left, and
Olympiakos coach Panagiotis Lemonis's adventurous tactics were
to bear fruit in emphatic fashion.
Unfortunate
mistake
A pulsating
first half ended with the home side deservedly 3-1 in front, Leverkusen
having taken the lead somewhat against the run of play. Bernd
Schneider, a constant threat down the right, swung a dangerous
ball in towards the near post and, under pressure from Oliver
Neuville, the luckless home goalkeeper Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos
fumbled the ball into his own net.
Temporary
wobble
Olympiakos
looked vulnerable for the first and only time in the match, and
Yildiray Bastόrk should have extended the away side's lead, but
he allowed Eleftheropoulos to partially redeem himself, firing
his shot against the goalkeeper's legs when clean through.
Heavy pressure
That miss was
to prove crucial as the home team soon recovered from the self-inflicted
set-back, and deservedly drew level in the 27th minute. Under
heavy pressure from Giovanni from a corner, Thomas Kleine could
only divert the ball past his own goalkeeper.
Remarkable
recovery
Worse was to
follow eleven minutes later, as Giannakopoulos was left with time
and space on the right-hand of the Leverkusen penalty area and
made no mistake. The fervent home supporters were sent into further
raptures a minute before the interval, when Djordjevic beat both
Hanno Balitsch and goalkeeper Frank Juric to Christos Patsatzoglou's
right-wing cross to flick the ball in at the near post.
Penalty
drama
Both teams
seemingly came out after the break in a more conservative frame
of mind, but further goals seemed inevitable and the game was
practically over as a contest in the 64th minute. Djordjevic got
ahead of Balitsch in the penalty area and was pulled down, then
got up to beat Juric from the spot himself.
Hat-trick
hero
He completed
his hat-trick nine minutes later, bursting through the middle
of the Leverkusen defence to roll a right-foot shot into the corner.
Although Schneider salvaged some respectability for Leverkusen
with a late penalty of his own after Lϊcio was brought down, Paar
Zetterberg's late free-kick for the home side gave the scoreline
a more realistic look.
|
