2007–08 Superleague Greece

The 2007–08 Superleague Greece was the 72nd season of the highest football league of Greece and the second under the name Superleague. The season began on 1 September 2007 and ended on 20 April 2008. The defending champions were Olympiacos. Asteras Tripoli, Veria and Levadiakos were promoted from Beta Ethniki in the previous season.

Superleague Greece
Season2007–08
ChampionsOlympiacos
36th Greek title
RelegatedAtromitos
Veria
Apollon Kalamarias
Champions LeagueOlympiacos
Panathinaikos
UEFA CupAris (via domestic cup)
AEK Athens
Intertoto CupPanionios
Matches played252
Goals scored601 (2.38 per match)
Top goalscorerIsmael Blanco (19)
Biggest home winSkoda Xanthi 6–1 Apollon Kalamarias
AEK Athens 5–0 Panionios
Biggest away winLevadiakos 0–4 Panathinaikos
Panionios 0–4 Olympiacos
PAOK 0–4 AEK Athens
Highest scoringOlympiacos 6–2 OFI
Levadiakos 5–3 Veria

Postponement

On 25 August, the Superleague and the Hellenic Football Federation decided to postpone the opening fixtures scheduled for that weekend (25 and 26 August) due to the ongoing fire disaster in the south of Greece (especially in the Peloponnese and Euboea). The championship started on 1 September 2007. Matchday 2 was carried out on the weekend of 21–22 September due to UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches (8 September) and Greek legislative election (16 September).

On 20 February 2008 UEFA president Michel Platini presented the Hellenic Football Federation with a CHF 1 million cheque to help finance the rebuilding of football facilities damaged by the fires in Greece that summer.[1]

Teams

Stadia and personnel
Location of teams in 2007–08 Superleague Greece
Team Manager Location Stadium Capacity
AEK Athens Nikos Kostenoglou Athens Athens Olympic Stadium 71,030
Apollon Kalamarias Makis Katsavakis Thessaloniki Kalamaria Stadium 6,500
Aris Dušan Bajević Thessaloniki Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium 23,220
Asteras Tripoli Panagiotis Tzanavaras Tripoli Asteras Tripolis Stadium 4,200
Atromitos Paulo Campos Peristeri Peristeri Stadium 9,035
Ergotelis Nikos Karageorgiou Heraklion Pankritio Stadium 26,400
Iraklis Ángel Pedraza Thessaloniki Kaftanzoglio Stadium 27,770
Larissa Giorgos Donis Larissa Alcazar Stadium 13,108
Levadiakos Babis Tennes Livadeia Levadia Municipal Stadium 8,000
OFI Giorgos Paraschos Heraklion Pankritio Stadium 26,400
Olympiacos José Segura Piraeus Karaiskakis Stadium 33,334
Panathinaikos José Peseiro Athens Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium 16,620
Panionios Ewald Lienen Nea Smyrni Nea Smyrni Stadium 11,700
PAOK Fernando Santos Thessaloniki Toumba Stadium 28,850
Veria Leonidas Yfantidis Veria Veria Stadium 5,373
Xanthi Nikos Kehagias Xanthi Skoda Xanthi Arena 7,422

Managerial changes
Team Outgoing manager Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment
PAOK Giorgos Paraschos 3 September 2007 14th Fernando Santos 3 September 2007
Aris Juan Carlos Oliva 4 September 2007 7th Dušan Bajević 7 September 2007
Veria Dimitris Kalaitzidis 12 October 2007 12th Ratko Dostanić 15 October 2007
Xanthi Emilio Ferrera 22 October 2007 6th Nikos Kehagias 22 October 2007
OFI Reiner Maurer 12 November 2007 13th Giorgos Paraschos 16 November 2007
Veria Ratko Dostanić 10 December 2007 15th Giannis Matzourakis 12 December 2007
Iraklis Ivan Jovanović 17 December 2007 9th Ángel Pedraza 24 December 2007
AEK Athens Lorenzo Serra Ferrer 12 February 2008 3rd Nikos Kostenoglou 12 February 2008
Asteras Tripoli Paulo Campos 24 February 2008 5th Panagiotis Tzanavaras 25 February 2008
Levadiakos Georgi Vasilev 3 March 2008 13th Babis Tennes 5 March 2008
Olympiacos Takis Lemonis 11 March 2008 2nd José Segura 11 March 2008
Veria Giannis Matzourakis 11 March 2008 14th Panagiotis Tsalouchidis 13 March 2008
Veria Panagiotis Tsalouchidis 23 March 2008 15th Leonidas Yfantidis 23 March 2008
Atromitos Ángel Guillermo Hoyos 26 March 2008 12th Paulo Campos 27 March 2008

Regular season final standings
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Olympiacos[lower-alpha 1] (C) 30 21 7 2 55 27 +28 70 Qualification for Champions League third qualifying round
2 AEK Athens 30 22 2 6 65 17 +48 68 Qualification for Superleague Greece play-offs
3 Panathinaikos 30 20 6 4 44 18 +26 66
4 Aris 30 14 8 8 32 20 +12 50
5 Panionios 30 13 6 11 39 42 −3 45[lower-alpha 2]
6 Larissa 30 11 12 7 35 30 +5 45[lower-alpha 2]
7 Asteras Tripoli 30 11 11 8 28 24 +4 44
8 Xanthi 30 10 6 14 33 39 −6 36
9 PAOK 30 10 5 15 29 35 −6 35[lower-alpha 3]
10 Iraklis 30 8 11 11 28 33 −5 35[lower-alpha 3]
11 Levadiakos 30 10 3 17 32 51 −19 33
12 OFI 30 9 5 16 39 49 −10 32
13 Ergotelis 30 7 9 14 28 41 −13 30
14 Atromitos (R) 30 8 5 17 23 36 −13 29 Relegation to Beta Ethniki
15 Veria (R) 30 5 8 17 21 44 −23 23
16 Apollon Kalamarias[lower-alpha 1] (R) 30 5 8 17 27 57 −30 23
Source: Galanis Sports Data
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th decision match.
According to the official Superleague playoff regulation, the position after the playoffs replaces the regular season position.
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. The match of Apollon Kalamarias vs. Olympiacos, originally 1–0 to the home side, was awarded to Olympiacos 0–3 by the Greek sports court giving Olympiacos the three points, on the basis that the home side fielded an ineligible player. Apollon Kalamarias were docked one extra point.
  2. Head-to-head record: Panionios–Larissa 3–1, Larissa–Panionios 1–0.
  3. Head-to-head record: PAOK–Iraklis Thessaloniki 3–0, Iraklis Thessaloniki–PAOK 1–0.

Results
Home \ Away AEK APL ARI AST ATR ERG IRT LAR LEV OFI OLY PAT PIO PAOK VER XAN
AEK Athens 4–0 1–1 2–0 2–0 3–1 1–2 1–0 3–0 4–0 4–0 1–1 2–3 2–0 5–1 3–0
Apollon Kalamarias 0–1 0–0 2–2 0–2 2–1 1–1 1–1 2–0 1–1 0–3[lower-alpha 1] 1–3 0–2 0–2 1–0 1–0
Aris 0–1 2–2 2–0 2–0 2–0 2–2 1–1 1–0 2–0 1–1 0–1 0–0 3–1 1–0 2–0
Asteras Tripoli 2–1 1–1 0–0 1–0 1–1 0–0 0–1 1–2 1–1 1–0 1–0 1–0 2–0 2–0 0–0
Atromitos 0–1 3–0 1–2 0–2 1–2 1–1 2–0 2–1 1–0 1–3 0–1 0–2 0–0 1–0 2–3
Ergotelis 1–4 2–2 0–1 0–3 0–0 1–0 0–0 2–1 1–1 3–3 0–3 1–1 2–0 2–0 2–0
Iraklis 0–1 5–2 0–2 0–0 1–1 0–1 1–1 1–0 1–0 1–2 0–1 1–0 1–0 1–1 1–1
Larissa 1–0 2–1 1–0 1–1 2–0 3–2 1–0 3–3 5–1 0–0 2–2 1–0 4–3 1–1 0–0
Levadiakos 0–4 2–0 2–0 0–0 2–1 0–0 3–0 0–1 0–3 1–3 0–4 1–0 2–0 5–3 2–1
OFI 1–4 3–2 0–1 0–3 0–1 4–1 2–0 0–0 1–2 0–1 4–1 1–2 2–0 3–0 2–0
Olympiacos 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 1–0 3–1 2–1 4–0 6–2 1–1 4–1 2–1 1–0 2–1
Panathinaikos 2–1 1–0 1–0 2–0 2–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 1–0 3–1 0–0 2–1 2–0 1–0 0–0
Panionios 0–3 2–1 0–3 4–1 2–1 2–1 1–1 3–1 2–0 1–3 0–4 1–0 0–0 3–2 2–2
PAOK 0–4 4–1 3–0 0–1 1–0 1–0 3–0 1–0 1–0 2–2 1–1 0–1 3–1 2–0 0–1
Veria 0–1 0–2 1–0 1–0 1–1 1–1 1–2 1–0 3–1 2–1 0–1 0–2 1–1 0–0 1–1
Xanthi 0–1 6–1 0–2 2–0 0–1 1–0 0–3 1–1 4–1 1–0 1–4 3–2 1–2 1–0 2–0
Source:
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:
  1. The match was originally finished 1–0 for Apollon Kalamarias, but was awarded to Olympiacos because was the home team fielded an ineligible player Roman Wallner, which was played for Falkirk and Hamilton Academical in the season and was not allowed to play for more of two clubs in the same season according to rules of FIFA.

Playoffs

The play-off winner enters the UEFA Champions League's second qualifying round, a two-legged tier from which the winner advances to the 3rd round qualification of the UEFA Champions League. The winner of the Greek Football Cup automatically qualifies for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, as well as the runners-up of the Superleague play-off.

In the play-off for Champions League, the teams play each other in a home and away round robin. However, they do not all start with zero points. Instead, a weighting system applies to the teams' standing at the start of the play-off mini-league. The team finishing fifth in the Superleague will start the play-off with zero points. The fifth place team's end of season tally of points is subtracted from the sum of the points that other teams have. This number is then divided by three to give the other teams the points with which they start the mini-league.

The teams started the play-offs with the following number of points:

  • AEK Athens – 8
  • Panathinaikos – 7
  • Aris – 2
  • Panionios – 0

Playoffs final standings
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
2 Panathinaikos 6 4 2 0 14 5 +9 21 Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
3 AEK Athens 6 2 2 2 10 11 −1 16 Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round
4 Aris[lower-alpha 1] 6 1 2 3 9 9 0 7
5 Panionios 6 1 2 3 7 15 −8 5 Qualification for Intertoto Cup second round
Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
Notes:
  1. Aris is guaranteed at least to play in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup second qualifying round through their Greek Football Cup performance.

Results

Local time: EEST (UTC+03:00)

Matchday 1
Aris1–1Panathinaikos
Koke  74' Papadopoulos  87' (pen.)
Attendance: 6,140
Referee: D. Kyrkos (Epirus)
AEK Athens5–0Panionios
Edinho  28'
Rivaldo  39', 77'
Blanco  74'
Kallon  90+1'
Attendance: 7,372
Referee: M. Germanakos (Athens)

Matchday 2
Panionios1–0Aris
Kumordzi  80'
Attendance: 1,049
Referee: G. Daloukas (Thessaly)
Panathinaikos4–1AEK Athens
Papadopoulos  8'
Mattos  27'
Ivanschitz  32'  45'		 Rivaldo  71'
Apostolos Nikolaidis, Athens
Attendance: 8,528
Referee: D. Kalopoulos (Thessaloniki)

Matchday 3
AEK Athens1–0Aris
Liberopoulos  54'
Attendance: 9,995
Referee: G. Kasnaferis (Athens)
Panionios1–2Panathinaikos
Djebbour  74' Manucho  16', 82'
Attendance: 1,996
Referee: I. Stavridis (Pieria)

Matchday 4
Aris4–0AEK Athens
Nebegleras  6'
Javito  39', 48'
Koke  55'
Attendance: 2,257
Referee: M. Koukoulakis (Heraklion)
Panathinaikos3–0Panionios
Karagounis  21', 43'
Manucho  64' (pen.)
Apostolos Nikolaidis, Athens
Attendance: 4,003
Referee: Ch. Zografos (Athens)

Matchday 5
Panathinaikos3–1Aris
Karagounis  65', 63'
N'Doye  62'		 Thiago  73'
Apostolos Nikolaidis, Athens
Attendance: 15,420
Referee: A. Kakos (Corfu)
Panionios2–2AEK Athens
Fernández  21'
Skoufalis  90'		 Rivaldo  21'
Liberopoulos  39'
Attendance: 1,011
Referee: L. Polatian (Pella)

Matchday 6
AEK Athens1–1Panathinaikos
Nsaliwa  51' Mattos  26'
Attendance: 5,032
Referee: K. Vassaras (Thessaloniki)
Aris3–3Panionios
Calvo  6'
Ivić  48'
Amoroso  75' (pen.)		 Sialmas  8', 82'
Kapetanos  38'
Attendance: 3,452
Referee: M. Dakos (Xanthi)

Top scorers

Last updated April 20, 2008

Rank Player Club Goals
1 Ismael Blanco AEK Athens 19
2 Darko Kovačević Olympiacos 17
3 Dimitris Salpingidis Panathinaikos 15
4 Tomasz Radzinski Xanthi 14
Rafik Djebbour Panionios
6 Nikos Liberopoulos AEK Athens 11
7 Lampros Choutos Panionios 10
Predrag Đorđević Olympiacos
9 Lucio Filomeno Asteras Tripoli 9

Source: Galanis Sports Data

See also
  • Superleague Greece
  • PSAP MVP & Best Goal 2007-08

Notes
  1. "UEFA helps Greece rebuild". UEFA.com. Archived from the original on 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
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