Real Zaragoza have appointed Manolo Jimenez as their new coach until the end of the season.
Jimenez replaces Javier Aguirre, who was dismissed earlier this week with Zaragoza rooted to the foot of the La Liga standings having lost eight of their last nine league games.

The 47-year-old Jimenez, who will be presented on Sunday evening, has spent most of his career at Sevilla, representing the Andalusian club as a player from 1983 until 1997, then becoming reserve team coach for seven years until 2007, when he took over as first-team coach for three years.

Gudjohnsen fractured his leg in two places in the game against Olympiakos, when he collided with Oly's goalkeeper Constanzo. Gudjohnsen will be out for at least four months, but I think we won't see him on the pitch for the rest of the season.

Well, more or less good news is that we didn't lose the game: 1-1.

When I went to sleep yesterday Manolo Jimenez was still in charge of AEK. When I woke up it was Nikos Kostenoglou. 'A decision both AEK and me agreed on', as Jimenez put it, 'AEK will always be in my heart, but it was time for a change.'

Jimenez has been our headcoach for about a year, and the first one since 2002 who was succesful when it comes to prizes: the Greek cup.

UK journalist Matt Slater has summarized the corruption scandal in Greek football for the English speaking world here, but one line struck me in particular:

When Deputy Culture Minister Giorgos Nikitiadis said this was "the darkest day in the history of Greek football" it was probably the first pronouncement by a politician anybody in the country had entirely agreed with for months.

Really not sure where to start this one, but I guess Ill begin with Scocco transfer (though I'm sure most of you have heard by now). Yep, Nacho Scocco is no longer a player of AEK. And I really don't know what to say about this... literally.

Three seasons he's been with us and in during those three seasons he has left us with so many great memories: his two goals in the 4-4 Cup Final, his two goals against Oly to give us the win in Karaiskaki, his two goals (one of them being an outrageously beautiful shot, as were most of his goals) against Aris, his two goals against Vaslui, his fantastic shot against Panionios, a number of goals against PAO.

In the second part of three, Stoppage Time's look around the European leagues focuses on twelve leagues from Georgia to Montenegro via Germany, Greece and Italy.

GEORGIA

FC Zestaponi are looking forward to their first venture into the UEFA Champions League next season after winning their maiden Umaglesi Liga title with a six point margin over record champions Dinamo Tbilisi.

So, I know its a bit late, but I figured I'd get a short review of the season up (even though its a season, one of many, that I would ultimately like to forget about)..

I guess it would be most appropriate to start from the beginning though in all honesty, I can barely remember much from the first half of the season!

So, just a little over a week after we won our first Cup in so many years (despite the rather depressing events which followed after the match), us AEK fans were treated to yet another pleasing weekend. This time, however, the attention was not only on our football team, but also our Handball guys, a group of players who have fought hard and gave everything they had to offer to the club for the past three years.

By some grotesque strain of logic, it only seems natural that a season already wretchedly scarred by the "derby of shame" and PAOK fans hitting AEK players with flares would include a cup final that "set Greek football back over a hundred years," according to Atromitos president Giorgos Spanos.
His side lost to AEK by a score of 3-0 in a Greek Cup final in Athens' Olympic Stadium on Saturday that was cut short when AEK fans stormed the pitch and fought Atromitos and riot police with broken seats, advertising hoardings and whatever else they could turn into weapons.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

It'd been nine long years for AEK Athens, one of Greece's biggest and historical best, since a trophy haul, so the fans were allowed their celebrations upon victory in the Greek Cup over the weekend.

And then celebrations turned into rioting.

At some point a country is going to get really smart and fiscally irresponsible (Qatar 2022) and install trap doors in and around football pitches, both for rioters and red cards, sending the guilty parties into an unsuspecting free fall into a dungeon of housing insulation.

Alright, so I'm not sure whether I should start with the positives, or the negatives from this match. Either way, I'm sure most of you have read about yesterday's events by now.

So, the big day had come. For months I had been waiting for it, as I'm certain you all have also, and slowly the hours passed by, one by one, until it was time to finally head off to OAKA for my first time in almost five months.

Hey Everyone. Sorry for the delay, I was fortunate (though in some ways unfortunate) enough to attend the match, and Ill be getting a match report up shortly. Plenty to be said, not nearly the majority of it being happy, despite the fact that we won our first trophy in nearly ten years.

Greek football fans are a fascinating lot, they bring a huge amount of passion to club matches and videos of the pyrotechnics uses by their Ultras tend to show up on sites like Deadspin and The Big Lead. Unfortunately, that passion can get a bit out of control, can get a bit ugly.
The dark side of Greek football passion was on display this weekend during the Greek Cup final when AEK Athens fans stormed the pitch with a minute left in the match.

AEK has beaten the locals courtesy of goals from Manolas and two from Lagos.Unfortunately,I didn't watch the game,but highlights can be found on this link....

I hope AEKMAN74 won't mind me adding to his post, but I figured I'd just add to his rather than post a new entry. I only managed to find a decent stream in time for the second half so that's all I can comment on, but I still won't say much.

AEK fans all around the world world will be rejoicing today after our beloved team came back from Thesaloniki with a hard earned,well deserved victory over the locals,in the second leg of Greek Cup Semi final.The one nil scoreline was more than enough to take us through to the final on April 30 at the OAKA.

AEK fans all around the world world will be rejoicing today after our beloved team came back from Thesaloniki with a hard earned,well deserved victory over the locals,in the second leg of Greek Cup Semi final.The one nil scoreline was more than enough to take us through to the final on April 30 at the OAKA.

Im pretty sure Ive used that title before but Im going to use it again because I feel it works for the occasion. Today, in the same stadium, against the same team we so miserably drew 0-0 with five days ago, we witnessed a performance from AEK that was unlike anything we've seen yet this season (in my opinion).

We made it much more difficult for us than we needed to but, thanks for Michel's last second GOLARA, AEK are through to the semi-finals!

I'll admit that I did miss the second half due to this lovely snowstorm we had today in Ontario and the shoveling which was required, but I managed to catch the first even though it wasn't all good news.

AEK traveled north on Saturday night,looking to get back on track after last weeks miserable game.And it was all positive for Manolo Jimenez and his team as we came away with the 3 points courtesy of goals from Leonardo and the seemingly never aging Liberopoulos.
Jimenez sprung some major selection surprises in this game with the idea of resting players for the upcoming midweek 2nd leg Greek Cup clash against pao.

That's right,your eyes are not deceiving you.Our beloved set a new unwanted record on Saturday night.Heaviest defeat at home by a team from outside Athens or Thessaloniki.And this coming days after our massive 'away' victory against pao only 3 days earlier.
So what went so wrong????Honestly,i'm not sure.

What a sweet, sweet victory for all of us AEK fans today! A 2-0 victory over PAO in their own stadium, with both goals being scored by Libe.

The match was a fairly even affair throughout with neither side absolutely dominating possession. The match started with a very low pace with neither team looking to risk too much offensively too early in the game.

I was really looking forward to this game today as it was going to be my first AEK match that I'd be seeing live since last season. I'm now sitting here wondering what I was all excited about in the first place!

First match of the new year after a fairly quiet holiday period and we needed a win to keep a good grip on third place.