The final is bitter for AEK in Europe, but they have to admit what they have to correct

In a game that is considered something big, you expect those wearing the jersey to give that little bit more. This is even more true when there are shocking failures and players who are unprepared but need to be there.

Rather, you hope that the goalkeeper will make a game better than the average of a satisfactory performance. In this case, Giorgos Athanasiadis gifted two goals to Ajax, who scored three goals and eliminated AEK from European competition.

He is certainly not the only one responsible for the end of the Union’s adventure, but the one whose mistakes prevented them from qualifying for the Conference League. As many saves as he had to keep the score down after being 3-1 down, he had already done the job for the Dutch.

AEK didn’t put in a great performance overall, but they certainly shouldn’t have gone into the locker room with a loss at the end of the first half. There were moments when she took the lead after equalizing with a great header from Levia Garcia, but immediately after her second big moment when she parried Ramai’s shot from Zuber, it was conceded by Taylor. She survived the first 45 minutes unscathed and came on in the second minute to play her spares until Athanasiadis gave the hosts their second Christmas present.

As always, Union came to Amsterdam to play in their own way. Her coach made it clear the day before the game that she wouldn’t play with a draw plan because it would be boring.

There are of course others who say that the end justifies the means and that a coach should be more flexible in such cases. Especially against teams that want exactly this kind of treatment in order to showcase their own good selves.

It was reminiscent of a Dutch league game yesterday, a situation that Ajax liked. He entered the field to score one more goal than the opponent, taking into account that he can concede two and three goals. It turned out that AEK was not ready for such a game, especially since their goalkeeper generously gave goals to the opponent.

You put it down after the game and think that it wasn’t Pineda who was missing from Union, because Mandalos performed brilliantly in the role of the Mexican, while Levi Garcia did what everyone expected after a month’s break.

The biggest loss proved to be Stankovic’s, as despite the other notable absences, it was the goalkeeper who did the most damage to his team at the end of the day, passing through and giving the opposition the greatest possible chance of winning the game.

It wasn’t the final that AEK necessarily deserved after their overall Europa League run, but in all the details necessary to get what you deserve in football, they did it. Either through huge missed opportunities, or through unacceptable mistakes for the respective level that cost points. One cannot say that she was wronged, but perhaps it is too simplistic to say that she educated herself.

Obviously she got what she deserved and she has to search a lot and also admit things that she doesn’t want to see in order to raise her level even further and achieve greater things in Europe. It was a good beginning, but in the end it was just a beginning…

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