AEK could not overturn the score of their defeat in Armenia (3-1), only defeated Noah 1-0 at the “OPAP Arena” in the 3rd round of the Conference League and bid an early farewell to Europe on a very difficult night for the Union .
In the playoffs of the competition, AEK will face either Ruzoberok (Slovakia) or Hajduk Split (Croatia) with the first match in New Philadelphia on August 22 (second leg on the 29th of the month). In the first game the two teams were tied 0-0 and tonight in Split they play the second game (15/8, 22.00).
The “two-headed” who did not have the team’s first scorer Levia Garcia at his disposal, entered the match strongly and in the two minutes 3′-4′ he missed two great opportunities for the 1-0 but both were saved by the Armenian goalkeeper. First in a four-four with Zuber and then in a header with Rota.
Noa quickly leveled the match and looked dangerous on the counter-attacks with Strakosa saving Gregorio’s shot in the 20th minute and Cullens saving in the 22nd before Gregorio could put Strakosa through. In the 37th minute, Mandalos hit the crossbar with a header from Zuber’s cross.
AEK pressed at the end of the first half and missed great opportunities with Eliasson and Ljubicic to open the scoring.
In the 2nd half and with their backs against the wall, Almeida threw Pineda and Lamela into the match, necessarily taking risks in order to make AEK much more pressing with the aim of finding a quick goal. But Noah threatened first and seriously in the 56th minute when Manveleyan’s cross was stopped by Strakosa’s crossbar.
The “two-headed” man, obviously stressed, could not find solutions to break the opposing defense and threatened with two long-range shots from Rota, which were impressively blocked by Cantsarevic. But in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, AEK found a goal from… an own goal by Silva from a cross by Fernandes and the Union revived their hopes for the upset but they could not change the score.
The German Robert Schroeder “yellowed” Pereira, Pelio, Ljubitzic, Simanski, Gregorio, Cullens, Vida, Thorarinson, Avanesian, Chinari.
AEK: Strakosa, Rota, Vida, Cullens, Pelios (70′ Hadjisafi), Simanski (46′ Pineda), Mandalos, Eliasson (64′ Fernandes), Ljubicic (46′ Lamela), Gacinovic (64′ Koita), Zuber.
NOA: Tsandarevic, Silva, Milikovic, Thorarinsson, Pablo, Gabos (63′ Avanesian), Shangare (76′ Muradian), Manveleyan (76′ Omar), Pinson, Ferreira (63′ Cinari), Gregorio (63′ Aias).
*Before the match, the AEK players left a bouquet of flowers on the wheelchair where the iconic fan of the team, Nikos Xirokostas, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 51, was sitting.
#AEK #Noah #suicided #goodbye #Europe
