A Shambolic Collapse

This past Saturday Enosi took on Atromito at home at the OAKA. Morais would start Mantalo is a deeper position this week playing alongside Johanson in the middle of the park.

Once again Almedia would start up top, he really needs to produce something and score some goals. At times our system looked like a 442 with Aravidi joining Hugo up top at times.

We would start out wonderfully with our captain opening up the scoring in just the 2nd minute as he picked up a loose clearance and made no mistake sticking the ball in the back of the net. in the 11th minute Johanson had a header easily saved by the Atromito goalkeeper. Papito had an effort in the 17th minute but his shot remained low and harmless.

In the 24th minute Galo tried a shot from distance which swerved and forced a good save out of Gorbunov. We created some very good chances in the first half, Lazaro had his curling effort go just wide in the 43rd minute. Atromito would only create one chance in the first half and that was practically the last kick of the half, Vasiliou popped up in a dangerous position but his shot sailed well over Anesti’s net.

The second half started out pretty well for us, Mantalo had a hard chance in the 53rd minute after a weak header off a Lazaro delivery. Two minutes after that we had a very appealing and quick counter attack but unfortunately Almedia couldn’t apply the final touch. Papito would make it 2-0 in the 60th minute with some style cutting in from the left and curling one past Gorbunov to rightfully extend our lead.

Morais would then take off arguably our best player and replace Papito with Vargas who’s making his return from missing a stretch of games. In the 69th minute Aravidi had a left footed effort go well wide. Atromito would pull one back in the 71st minute through Le Tallec after some poor loose defending. In the 74th minute we almost made it 3-1 but Almedia’s goal bound effort was deflected by Aravidi who was standing in an offside position.

In the 76th a harmless Umbides cross somehow beat Anesti and Atromito somehow found themselves level. Anesti really has to do better there, the cross was from distance and nobody was attacking it, it somehow went straight in. We still had a chance to take the lead again. In the 80th minute Almeida missed a great chance to make it 3-2 after a smart cut back. He should really be scoring from there.

Atromito almost snuck the winner a couple of times after Hugo’s chance went begging. Anesti denied Le Tallec in the 83rd minute, and in the 87th minute a deflected effort almost ended up in our net. In the 90th minute Almedia would finally put the ball in the back of the net but the goal was called back and rightfully so, Almedia was a body length offside. Deep into stoppage time we almost found the winner but Pekart who was on as a sub who was at full stretch but failed to poke the ball home after a great cross on the ground.

The match would end 2-2, how did we let this one get away we were in control for 70 minutes before we fell apart. Things like this shouldn’t happen especially if we are 2-0 at home and playing pretty well. There’s nothing we can do now, we let one slip. We have to retain our focus and prepare ourselves for our third derby of the season against Panathinaiko in two weeks time after the international break continues.