Aris – Kolos K. Prediction and announcement for the match – Europa League

On September 17, in Thessaloniki, the fifth team according to the results of the last season of Greece – “Aris” – will meet the sixth team according to the results of the last season of the UPL – “Kolos”. The meeting will take place within the second qualifying round of the Europa League.

If for the “gods of war” to get into the European cups can be considered almost a common place (although they do not succeed), then for our “gods of the fields” the current European campaign will be their debut. In the 2019/2020 season, Kovalevka’s team made it to the Premier League for the first time and was able to immediately win a ticket for Europa League qualification. “For Europe”, Kovalev’s team not only got decently strong this offseason (Seleznev, Isaenko, Kravchenko, Kucheruk and Novak came along), but also opened a new 5,000th stadium that meets UEFA requirements.

However, our team’s rivals did not sit idly by during the break between seasons. In the tradition of the past few years, Aris has aggressively run a transfer campaign. The team, led by German specialist Michael Enning, was joined by eight new artists. Relatively familiar faces include Romania’s left flank defender Christian Gania and former Dynamo Kiev footballer Facundo Bertoglio. For Michael Enning, the club’s management has set itself a clear task: to enter the group stage of the Europa League. By the way, the “gods of war” set a similar task last year, but they “flew” in the first qualifine round: the Danish “Mold”, which cost the then helmsman of “Aris” Pantelidis his job. He was replaced by Anning.

On September 11 “Aris” started the new Greek championship with a victory. In their native walls, the “gods of war” in a difficult duel defeated “Lamia” – 3: 1. The guests were the first to open the scoring and won until the middle of the second half, when the rookie of the team of Salonika Christian López tied the score. After that, the guests “showered”. With an interval of ten minutes, two of our old acquaintances, Bruno Gama (former Dnipro midfielder) and Facundo Bertoglio (former Dynamo striker), scored two more goals, burying Lamia’s hopes of a positive result. After the first round, Aris took the lead in the tournament table, having the same number of points with Volos, Asteras and PAOK, but the best difference between goals scored and conceded.

Kolos, unlike his rival, has already played two games in the framework of the national championship. In the first round, Kovalev’s team lost to Shakhtar 1: 3, however, in terms of quality of the game, they left a pleasant impression. The second round for Ruslan Kostyshin’s team was memorable in every way. With a match against Lvov, the team opened their new stadium, introduced some newcomers through a duel: Novak, Kravchenko and Isayenko, and defeated an unattractive opponent 4: 0. The only drawback of the match is the injury of Nikita Kravchenko, who left the field in the 50th minute. However, Ruslan Kostyshin included the midfielder in the Kolos delegation, which left for Ellada. Among those who flew to Thessaloniki was the rookie star of the agrarians Yevhen Seleznyov, who could not make his debut in the match against Lvov due to minor damage. But, as Kostyshin assured, Selya can debut in the game against Aris.

Michael ENNING, Aris head coach:

– We play at home, so the draw can be considered a success. Here we feel safe, this is important. On the other hand, the draw was not easy, because we know little about the opponent. We must not underestimate Kolos, we must be on guard. I believe in my guys, by September 17 we will be ready to show our best and advance to the next round. Our goal is to play in the Europa League for as long as possible.

Ruslan KOSTYSHIN, Kolos Head Coach:

– The opponent is serious for us, but the game will already show who is stronger.

I agree that Aris is the favorite. A team with a very strong selection of players, especially in the attack group. But we weren’t favorites in the UPL playoffs to get to the Europa League either. The game consists of a match and anything can happen in it.

Approximate compositions:

Aris: Cuesta, Sakic, Rose, Datkovic, Ganya, Jeggo, Matilla, Sasha, Fetfacidis, Gama, Bertollo

“Ear”: Volynets, Zozulya, Gavrish, Petrov, Novak, Yemets, Zadoya, Bogdanov, Antyukh, Smirny, Lysenko

September 17, Thursday