Following its historic victory over Linz in the Champions League, AEK must return to the reality of the Stoiximan Super League with an away match in Tripoli against Asteras Tripoli (7:00 p.m.) for Matchday 4.
With seven points from its first three games, AEK needs only the “three points” to reach the top of the standings or get close to it, while the home team, on the other hand, has its back against the wall, as it has yet to earn a point and sits in last place in the standings alongside Levadiakos.
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Stoiximan Super League: Atromitos vs. AEK Postponed
In the AEK camp, morale is sky-high following the historic 1-0 victory over Linz in the opening match of the Champions League group stage. Razvan Marin was the star of the show, deciding the match with a masterful free kick, but AEK must put that success behind them to secure a victory in Tripoli.
In their first away game of the season, the Yellow-and-Blacks dropped their first points with a 1-1 draw against Kifisia at Leoforos, in a match where they didn’t play well, and now they want to show that this result was just a blip. AEK will have the support of their fans at “Theodoros Kolokotronis,” while Marco Nikolić, by all accounts, will not make any changes to the starting 11 that took the field against Linzer. Strakosa remains sidelined but will be available to the Serbian coach again after the break.
On the other side, Asteras has had a terrible start to the season with consecutive losses to Panetolikos, Olympiacos, and Heraklis. They’ll be looking to pull off an upset against AEK, as they’re the heavy underdogs, though they’ve managed to boost their morale somewhat following a 1-1 draw against Aris in the Superbet Greek Cup.
The Arkadians took the lead through Makenda, played well, and could have scored more goals to secure the victory, but they paid the price for a defensive lapse, and Moron, who had come on as a substitute, found the back of the net to equalize for Aris.
Giorgos Antonopoulos cannot count on Papadopoulos, Deligiannidis, and Riera, and announced a 23-player roster after the completion of preseason training on Saturday. The squad consists of: Hatzimmanuel, Kriaras, Kakadiaris, Chrysopoulos, Brorson, Tereziou, Kotsiras, Mendez, Silva, Laskaris, Bouzoukis, Eder, Tsiko, Kourbelis, Bartolo, Pérez, Makenda, Ketou, Orothko, Kaltsas, Ricardinho, Papakanellos, Kimbioka
As for the history between the two teams, AEK is on an excellent three-game winning streak in league play in Tripoli with a combined score of 0-7.
Probable starting lineups:
Asteras AKTOR (Giorgos Antonopoulos): Hatzimmanuel – Kotsiras, Silva, Brorson, Mentes – Kourbelis, Eder – Ketou, Bouzoukis, Orosko – Ricardinho.
AEK (Marko Nikolić): Brignoli – Rota, Mukundi, Relvas, Pilios – Mayer, Marin, Vitalis, Koita – Jović, Varga.
Referee: Papapetrou
; Assistant Referees: Papadakis, Patras
; Fourth Official: Koukoulas
; VAR: Papadopoulos
; AVAR: Moschou
*photo source: AEK FC / AEK FC
