AEK Athens 1-2 Royal Antwerp ( att : 29,300 ) - 2023/24 UEFA Champions League Play-Off Round

August 30, 2023

These diaries covered the first leg meeting last week between these two sides, and with Antwerp taking a slender 1-0 lead into the return, it was all to play for.

https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/08/royal-antwerp-1-0-aek-athens-att-13376.html 

The match was being played at AEK’s Agia Sophia Stadium and the bookies made AEK favourites to overturn the deficit in front of their own supporters. Bet365 offered AEK at 13/20, Antwerp were 17/4 outsiders, and the draw was 11/4.

AEK made three changes from their starting line-up last week. Austrian keeper Cican Stankovic ( 4 caps ) replaced Athanasiadis, Rota swapped with Sidibe, and Ponce started in place of the injured Garcia after replacing him in the first half in Antwerp.

Antwerp made two changes from the first leg. With Bataille suspended after his red card, USA left-back Sam Vines took his place and Kosovan Arbnor Muja replaced Ondrejka upfront

Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano was in charge of the match.

The game started in a lively fashion and with just over a minute played Antwerp keeper Butez was sent crashing to the floor by Ponce as he attempted to clear the ball downfield. The referee took no sanction against the AEK forward apart from awarding the free-kick.

Amrabat, the standout player for AEK in the first tie, carelessly gave the ball away in his own half enabling Muja to dribble into the AEK penalty area, but Moukoudi made a tremendous tackle and came away with possession.

In the third minute, Muja set off on another run down the left after receiving a pass from Janssen and this time his shot needed to pushed away by the diving AEK keeper.

Both sides were playing at pace and the next promising move occurred in the 14^th minute, but Amrabat’s teasing cross was matched by a great defensive header from Alderweireld. AEK continued to probe and two minutes later Haj Safi’s cross from the left was headed just wide by Ponce from close to the penalty spot. The Argentinian ought to have at least hit the target.

Balikwisha was looking dangerous for Antwerp, first sending a low cross from the left across the face of the goal and wide, and then playing in Janssen down the left wing, and with the cross into the middle being poorly punched away by keeper Stankovic no Antwerp player could take advantage.

The poor goal-keeping continued at the other end as a Pineda’s shot was blocked, took two deflections and flew high in the air. Butez made a very odd looking punch rather than palming the ball off for corner, and again the ball went high into the air, for Ponce to again head wide from a good position.

Janssen was the meat in a sandwich as Szymanski and Moukoudi both fouled the Antwerp striker but again the referee’s cards stayed in his pocket.

With 24 minutes played, Butez then made another error as his attempted pass out from the back went straight to Zuber who passed first time to Ponce on the edge of the area, but Butez redeemed himself with a fine save to push a piledriver over the bar.

After an AEK corner was cleared in the 35^th minute, the ball reached Gacinovic 25 yards out but his left-footed effort went over the bar without troubling the keeper. A minute later, Amrabat, who had been disappointingly anonymous to date for AEK, made a promising run from out on the right into the Antwerp area but his left-footed shot was poor and went several feet wide.

The first half ended with the score 0-0, in which both sides had shown good quality with the ball, but the score was a fair reflection of the even nature of the play. It was still all to play for in the second half.

The early phases of the second half were cagey, with not a lot happening apart from Pineda’s low cross being well defended by Alderweireld at the expense of a corner.

However, Antwerp should have taken the lead on the night in the 60^th minute. A flowing move featuring a dozen or more first time passes and great movement off the ball saw Balikwisha get to the by-line and his low cross found Muja 3 yards out. With an empty net in front of him, the Kosovan somehow put the ball wide of the far post. An incredible miss !

A lengthy injury delay soon followed and Alderweireld was unable to continue with what looked like a bad arm injury and he had to be replaced.

AEK left-back Haj Safi made a promising run from close to the half-way line but badly sliced his shot from distance but appealed for corner, probably hoping the referee would think the shot couldn’t have been that bad and so must have been deflected. The referee wasn’t fooled though.

There didn’t appear to be an danger as Antwerp prepared to take a throw-in just inside the AEK half, but Vines sent his throw long down the touch-line and Balikwisha raced onto it with most of the AEK defence standing and watching. A brilliant pass just before the ball went out of play gave substitute Kerk, who had been on the pitch for barely a minute, had an easy finish inside the 6 yard box to make it 2-0 on aggregate to the Great Old with 18 minutes left to play.

AEK responded by making a triple substitution but it was Antwerp who nearly scored the next goal as Janssen and Kerk combined, but Balikwisha couldn’t control the final pass when otherwise he would been one on one with the keeper.

AEK were looking short of ideas, with the biggest danger coming when Yusef’s attempted clearance was sliced over his own bar. AEK’s night seemed to be summed up with Pineda spooned high over the bar from the edge of the area with 2 minutes left on the clock and they seemed to be lamely exiting the competition.

As the game entered the last minute of normal time, Eliasson crossed from the right wing. The ball reached Araujo at the back post who was able to chest control and managed to shoot from 8 yards. The ball went past De Laet’s attempt to block and snuck just inside the post. 1-1 on the night, and with 8 minutes of added time to be played, AEK still had time to force extra-time. Against Dinamo Zagreb in the previous round they had come back to score two goals in added on time to progress. Could they do it again to force extra-time ?

Roared on by their passionate fans, the Greek side surged forward but they left gaps at the back, and in the 5th minute of added time, a first time pass out of defence from Vermeeren found Balikwisha all alone, and he advanced to steer a confident shot past Stankovic and send Antwerp into the draw for the CL group stages for the first team ever.

There was still time for Eliasson to miss badly with a header, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nwtU0uzbKM

AEK Athens : Stankovic – Rota ( Jonsson ), Vida, Moukoudi, Haj Safi – Amrabat ( Eliasson ), Pineda, Szymanski ( Pizarro ), Gacinovic ( Manatolos ) – Ponce, Zuber ( Araujo )

Royal Antwerp : Butez – De Laet, Alderweireld ( Van Den Bosch ), Coulibaly, Vines – Keita, Ekkelenkamp ( Kerk ), Vermeeren – Muja, Janssen ( Yusef ), Balikwisha ( Ondrejka )

 

APIA Leichhardt 0-2 Sydney FC ( att : 4,601 ) – 2023 Australia Cup

August 30, 2023

The Australia Cup is the national knock-out competition in Australia, with the early round played in the summer during the regional league seasons, with the final stages played after those leagues have finished and as pre-season for the A-League sides. Today’s Sydney derby was in the round of the last 16 and was being played at the Leichhardt Oval rather than APIA’s own Lambert Park due to the large crowd expected. It was also the first competitive meeting between the two sides.

APIA were featured twice in these diaries in February at the start of their 2023 league campaign and I was fortunate enough to attend their 6-0 home victory over Rockdale Ilinden at their Lambert Park ground.

https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/02/apia-leichhardt-tigers-6-0-rockdale.html 

https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/02/apia-leichhardt-tigers-2-0-mount-druitt.html 

The last round of fixtures in the New South Wales National Premier League was last weekend, and APIA clinched the title with a 2-1 home win over St Georges to finish 6 points ahead of Rockdale Ilinden. In some ways, the 6-0 win in the second round of matches was crucial, as if it had, say, instead finished 0-1, Rockdale would have been Champions !

Jack Armson and Jack Stewart both scored 14 goals for APIA during the league season. US striker Jason Romero scored 4 goals in that game against Rockdale and two weeks later signed for A-League MacArthur on a short-term contract as an injury replacement for star player Ulises Dasilva. He played 5 A-League matches in total, scoring once, and at the end of his contract, Romero returned to APIA.

To get this far, APIA had to play three matches in the NSW Regional qualification competition, where they eliminated Lindfield ( 7-0 ), Blacktown Spartans ( 5-0 ) and Sydney Olympic on penalties after a 1-1 draw, all at home. Next, they travelled to Victoria Division 3 side Goulburn Valley Suns in the last 32 and clocked up a 4-1 victory, with Stewart and Romero both on target twice.

APIA have twice eliminated A-League sides from the Australia Cup, beating Melbourne Victory in 2018 and Western Sydney Wanderers in 2021. Both matches were played at the Leichhardt Oval.

Sydney FC entered the competition in the round of 32 stage and progressed after an eventful tie with new A-League champions Central Coast Mariners. The Mariners looked to be going through as the led 3-2 as the game went into added on time in extra time, before Sydney FC grabbed an equaliser through substitute Jaiden Kucharski. There was more drama in the penalties before keeper Andrew Redmayne converted his spot-kick to give Sydney FC a 10-9 shoot-out win.

Last season Sydney FC finished a disappointing 6^th in the regular A-League season, and although they beat Western Sydney Wanderers 2-1 in the Elimination Finals, they were hammered 5-1 on aggregate by Melbourne City in the Semi-Final.

Sydney FC have also appeared in these diaries, when I attend their home match against Central Coast Mariners in February 2019, which ironically was played at the Leichhardt Oval during the rebuilding of the Allianz stadium.

 https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2020/01/sydney-fc-1-1-central-coast-mariners.html

Sydney FC’s line-up today included ex-Everton, Manchester City and Sunderland defender/defensive midfielder, who won three caps for England between 2011-13, and ex-Nottingham Forest winger Joe Lolley ( and to the punster’s delight played in the same side as Matt Cash ). Their other non-Australian player was Slovak attacker Robert Mak ( 77 caps ) who began his career at Manchester City before going to play for Nurnburg, PAOK Salonika, Zenit St Petersburg and Ferencvaros.

Keeper Andrew Redmayne earned global recognition after coming on as a substitute in the 2022 World Cup play-off for the penalty shoot-out against Peru, where his antics on the goal-line put-off the Peruvian penalty takers to help take the Socceroos to the Qatar finals. 

 

Left-back Joel King has 4 caps and had a brief spell with Odense in Denmark.

Ex-Reading striker Adam Le Fondre, last season’s top scorer, has left the club to join Scottish side Hibernian, midfielder Paulo Retre is now with FC Goa in India, whilst youngster Adrian Segecic has joined Dutch second level side FC Dordrecht on loan.

APIA made two changes to their regular starting XI, with veteran keeper Ivan Necevski being rested to give Anthony Bouzanis an outing, whilst Newcastle Jets loanee Rory Jordan dropped to the bench to give teenager Franco Farinella a start.

Ticket for the game were 20 AUD ( £10 ) in advance or 25 AUD ( £13 ) on the gate. A Corporate Box for 10 with food and drinks was 2,200 AUD ( £1,125 ) !

The match was live streamed on Bet365, who made Sydney FC 4/7 favourites, with APIA at 4/1 and the draw at 7/2.

The temperature at the 19.30 local kick-off time was a cool 17 degrees and it was raining cats and dogs. One of the interesting statistics to come out of the recent Ashes series was that Sydney has lost more days of Test cricket due to bad weather than Manchester !

With the heavy rain, very few brave souls were in the open seats or on the grass bank, and the vociferous Sydney FC fans had gathered in the old-fashioned Keith Barnes stand in the corner behind one of the goals. They were to sing throughout the match regardless of events on the pitch, with the main chant being “The City Boys, will make some noise”.

The referee for the game was Shaun Evans, perhaps taking time out from shooting episodes of Endeavour…………

APIA were in their usual maroon shirts with white shorts, whilst Sydney wore their familiar sky blue shirts with black shorts. With the Leichhardt Oval being primarily used for Rugby League, the markings for the 13-a-side game were clearly visible on the pitch.

The first attack of the game belonged to APIA when a long ball gave Romero a sniff of a chance, but right-back Kealey Adamson, who impressed throughout the game, was alert to the danger and was able to intercept and pass back to his keeper.

Sydney then took control and dominated the opening twenty-five minutes of the contest, forcing the home side to frequently give away possession and winning nearly all the 50/50 tackles. They won a free-kick on the right-hand side of the pitch after 10 minutes and with most people expecting a ball into the penalty area, it was played square across the 18-yard line to captain Brattan, but his shot was blocked.

Stewart then lost possession inside his own half and Hollman played in Patrick Wood, but his shot on the run lacked power and after a slow-motion dive, Bouzanis grabbed at the second attempt.

Sydney should have opened the scoring in the 13^th minute. A poor pass out from Bouzanis played Joshua Symons into trouble and he was tackled by Lolley, who then headed into the area with a 2 on one. However, his touch was heavy and Bouzanis redeemed himself with a sliding tackle with the ball rebounding off his legs and off Lolley for a goal-kick. Had Lolley looked up he would have seen Wood with an open goal. You could say Lolley failed to cash in, and certainly wasn’t on the money !

Mak then launched a long-range effort that was straight at Bouzanis, and soon after, he received the first yellow card of the match, sliding in to catch Symons after the defender had cleared.

With 22 minutes played, Sydney lost possession in the APIA half, enabling Farinella to play a splendid cross-field pass to Stewart free on the right, but Rodwell’s good tackle ended the danger.

APIA had looked overawed in the initial stages but they were slowly getting into the game. A nice give and go between Sean Symons and Romero saw Symons get to the left by-line but his low cross was claimed by the diving Redmayne.

Sydney’s Mak was left in space on the left-hand side of the APIA area but he chose to try and move the ball onto his right foot, and Askew closed him down. Wood then had a go from the edge of the area, but his snap-shot with little back-up was straight at the keeper.

Another good move involving Sean Symons and Romero saw the ball played to Armson just inside the visitors’ area, but his shot after turning was hurried and went 10 feet over. He had much more time than he realised.

APIA then had an appeal for handball but the ball appeared to hit stomach of Girdwood-Reich and was rightly waved away, and an attempted defence splitting pass from Joshua Symons to Armson was cut out in the nick of time by Rodwell.

APIA were enjoying a good spell and Joshua Symons was again in the action to find Stewart in space on the right, but the inviting low cross was again dealt with by Rodwell.

Lolley then got involved, cutting in from the right only to produce a weak shot, and then making a threatening run at the APIA backline, only to over hit his attempted pass to play in Wood, enabling Bouzanis to come off his line and claim.

APIA right-back Askew then raced down the right wing but Mak was covering back to make a sliding block to divert the cross off for a corner. Sydney defended the first corner but from the second, Mouta-Marlow jumped the highest but under pressure could only head straight at Redmayne, who made a comfortable save.

Sydney created another chance in the 41^st minute. King was in space in the left-hand channel and his ball into the 6-yard box was put wide of the near post by Wood. However, the forward’s blushes were spared by the raised linesman’s flag for off-side.

Lolley made another dangerous run which ended with a dive as Kouta went to make a challenge. However, the free-kick was given and the unfortunate defender was shown the yellow card. The ensuing free-kick was blasted into the two-man wall and wasted.

At half-time, Sydney had enjoyed 60% of the possession and had looked the better side, albeit being wasteful in-front of goal. APIA would have taken comfort from performance in the last twenty minutes of the half.

The rain ceased during the interval, and Sydney came out strongly at the start of the second-half, probably with a flea in their ear from coach Steve Corica. They immediately forced two corners, which were well defended, then Mak made a strong run down the left, but failed to look-up before crossing, so sent a cross into an empty penalty area.

Stewart carelessly gave away possession with Lolley gathering, running across the face of the penalty area and shooting left-footed from a narrow angle, only for Bouzanis to save with his legs. Wood then teed up Lolley, but his shot from just inside the area sailed well over.

Armson incurred the wrath of the referee after bringing down Caceres with a rugby tackle, and a minute later Lolley’s free-kick went over the defensive wall but into the arms of the keeper, who didn’t have to move.

Sydney continued to pile on the pressure and a goal looked inevitable. Mak struck a post after being set-up by Wood and when the ball was reworked from the left, Wood blazed over from 8 yards.

However, the opening goal finally arrived in the 53^rd minute. Caceres received a pass just inside the APIA half, ran at the defence, waltzed past two tackles and from just inside the penalty area, drilled a low shot inside the keeper’s right-hand post for a tremendous goal. The midfielder showed his forwards how it should be done !

APIA responded to falling behind with Askew firing a 20-yard effort just over the bar, and then from Kouta’s in-swinging free-kick, Joshua Symons glanced a header a few feet wide.

However, Sydney killed the game as a contest with a second goal in the 65^th minute. Lolley slipped a pass behind a square back-line for Wood to run onto and have a simple finish from 8 yards.

A third goal nearly arrived soon after as Mak flashed a shot across the face of the goal, then Girdwood-Reich’s header was pushed away by the overworked APIA keeper.

For APIA, Armson then saw a strong effort from 20 yards from Armson pushed away by Redmayne, and Stewart shot wide, but the last 20 minutes were controlled by Sydney as they missed a string of chances.

Wood put the ball into the net, but had badly timed his run onto the pass from Mak to be ruled offside, Kucharski screwed horribly wide from a good position, and from the centre of the area Mak’s header from Adamson’s cross struck the legs of the diving keeper. Brattan’s bouncing 25 yarder was well dealt with by Bouzanis, and in added on time Glasson’s low shot from the edge of the area produced another good diving save from the APIA keeper.

APIA did have a good case for handball 12 minutes from the end after the ball struck the arm of Girdwood-Reich after Jordan’s free-kick had been turned back into the 6-yard box from beyond the far post, but offside was given instead, although it wasn’t obvious against whom this had been given.

At the final whistle, Sydney progressed to the last 8 with what was ultimately a comfortable victory, and now have a home tie against Western United to look forward to. However, they will probably be concerned with their profligacy in front of goal.

A-League’s sides are allowed to sign 5 foreign players, and Sydney’s chances for the upcoming season probably depending of the quality of the signings they can make before the season starts in late October.

For APIA, being Champions of the NSW NPL and reaching the last season of the Australia Cup and putting up a commendable performance against an A-League should give then strong claims to be part of A-League 2, should it happen in 2024.

Highlights :  https://www.australiacup.com.au/match/apia-leichhardt-fc-v-sydney-fc-australia-cup-31-08-2023/22278556

APIA Leichhardt : Bouzanis – Askew, Mouta-Marlow, J. Symons ( Galami ), Kouta ( Nicolaou ) – Farinella, Ucchino, Armson – Stewart, Romero ( Sparacino ), S. Symons ( Jordan )

Sydney FC : Redmayne – Adamson, Girdwood-Reich, Rodwell ( Gurd ), King – Brattan, Caceres, Hollman ( Kucharski ) – Lolley ( Scarcella ), Wood ( Glasson ), Mak ( Amanatidis )