Yesterday, Greek football experienced another difficult European night. In three matches, we counted only one win, Ari’s 2-1 victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was not enough for him to reach the playoffs. Conference League, while only Olympiacos managed to achieve its goal, which reached the European play-offs thanks to a penalty shoot-out against Slovan in Bratislava. On the contrary, Panathinaikos, despite huge efforts, drew 1–1 with Slavia Praha at the Avenue and thus his return to European competition lasted only two games.

Four of our teams were at the start of qualifying this year and in the end very early we were left with only one, Olympiacos, who at least have a guaranteed presence in the groups, because even if they are excluded from Europe in the conference league. In order for anyone to understand the scale of this year’s failure and how low we are now, it is enough to see the fact that Levski Sofias, who eliminated PAOK in the 2nd Conference Qualifier, finally stayed yesterday, except for the unknown Hamrun. Spartans of Malta.

With the victory of Aris and the draw of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, Greece retained 16th place in the special UEFA rankings with 24,475 points, but are now represented only by the “red-whites”. This means that now only the results of Olympiacos will not be enough, but also what the teams of those countries that are pursuing us will achieve or not achieve. In particular, the Czechs continue with two, the Danes with four, the Croats with two, the Turks with four, Israel with three and the Cypriots with four.

It goes without saying that in terms of keeping the 16th place, everything is not easy and Olympiacos will have to achieve almost an absolute maximum in order to give our country the necessary points, but the champions, however, cannot convince. Even yesterday, when at the end of the match, which turned into a rodeo, they were celebrating the qualification to the next stage of the Europa League, they failed to win the 4th European game this year, remaining with a score of 1:1 in the 90th minute and 2:2 in extra time, despite the fact that before that they were twice.

Of course, on the other hand, even so they got a ticket to the playoffs, where they will meet with the “Apollo” from Limassol, the first match of which is scheduled for next Thursday in Cyprus. Qualifying has been the best balm for the Red-Whites at the moment, as it helps them heal the wounds opened after the games against Maccabi Haifa and their elimination from the Champions League.

On the other hand, however, he cannot be turned into a carpet under which Corberan will hide many of the problems that his team has in its main braking function. Yesterday’s goal, which brought the Slovaks 1:1, is not accepted even by the team playing in the local league. Of course, the Spanish coach himself is largely to blame, since the third stopper had completely opposite results than he expected: Olympiacos unjustifiably gave the ball to Slovan, who spent the last quarter of an hour in footage from Valchik. At the same time, the Red-Whites did not take advantage of the fact that they played with another player in extra time and quickly took the lead in the score 2:1, as the Slovaks equalized the score, moreover, in the phase where their defense is of great responsibility.

On the positive side for Olympiacos, they will go into the matches against the Cypriots with much less tension and anxiety than the matches against Slovan, where they looked like a match of redemption. It is up to him to present himself as improved, with an opponent clearly weaker than the two teams he has so far faced along the way.