AEK conceded the goal because it didn’t mark Embilas in any corner

AEK, despite being good in “G. Karaiskakis”, couldn’t avoid defeat. Olympiakos won 1-0 thanks to his goal Jan Embila and widened the gap to the Union to 17 points, while maintaining the +9 from the second PAOK, who had recently defeated Atromitos by the same score.

Argyris Giannikis’ players presented a positive image in the blocking area as they played at low meters and didn’t allow the hosts to find spaces towards Panagiotis Tsintotas’ home.

The duo of Javella and Mitoglou worked well, Rota and Hadjisafi got help from Garcia and Choumber respectively, while Simoes and Simanski, despite not helping creatively, took many second balls and stopped (counter)attacks from Olympus.

However, the problem that arose (obviously beyond the impossibility of making good finishing efforts in attack) concerns Giannikis’ choice to play on Zone in the set phases of Olympiacos and especially in the corners. The Greek coach, knowing that AEK is lagging behind his opponent in height, put the head-to-head aside and opted for the zone.

However, this decision cost his team. More specifically, the decision not to have a player on Embilas played a cleansing role in the game’s outcome.

And it’s not that Embila was left alone in the 1-0 phase, but that the same was true in all corners before. The Frenchman started his movement outside the large area and always remained undisturbed/unmarked on the second bar. But let’s look at each case in detail.

Case 1: In the 35th minute

The first bell rang in the 35. th minute. George Masouras took the corner from the right and as can be seen in the snapshot below, Embila moved calmly in the wide area.

At that point, the ball was cleared by Livai Garcia at the first post, but it was definitely the… prelude to what was to follow.

Case 2: In the 78th minute

In the second part, the picture was similar. Olympiakos increased his pressure after 75′ and managed to win corners in a row. In the 78th minute, substitute Mathieu Valbouena hit the corner from the right, Tikinio took the header, found the ball in Mitoglou and landed in a new corner.

But as you can see, Embila is again alone on the second beam.

Case 3: In the 79th minute

A few seconds later Valbuena gets the corner kick from the other side.

Embila makes a similar move, but Mitoglou wins an offensive foul from Papastathopoulos.

Case 4: In the 84th minute

Eventually, the 4th time proves to be… medical for the Union. Valbouena was again the one who will take over the execution of the corner, Embila starts his movement outside the big area, he reaches the height of the small area undisturbed (leaving a big gap between Simoes and Hadjisafi), he places Chinto and finally with one double effort sends the ball into the net.

Obviously, a repeated coincidence ceases to be a coincidence. Argyris Giannikis and his associates judged that Embila is either moving in places harmless to AEK, or he himself is not a major threat to the homeland of Tsintotas and there is a possibility of being restricted by the zone.

This did not happen with the known -negative- results.