2007–08 Super League Greece

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

Super League Greece

Season	2007–08
Champions	Olympiacos 36th Greek title
Relegated	Atromitos Veria Apollon Kalamarias
Champions League	Olympiacos Panathinaikos
UEFA Cup	Aris (via domestic cup) AEK Athens
Intertoto Cup	Panionios
Matches played	252
Goals scored	601 (2.38 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ismael Blanco (19 goals)
Biggest home win	Skoda Xanthi 6–1 Apollon Kalamarias AEK Athens 5–0 Panionios
Biggest away win	Levadiakos 0–4 Panathinaikos Panionios 0–4 Olympiacos PAOK 0–4 AEK Athens
Highest scoring	Olympiacos 6–2 OFI Levadiakos 5–3 Veria
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

Postponement

On 25 August, the Super League 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

AEK Athens
Atromitos
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Apollon
Aris
Iraklis
PAOK

Asteras

Ergotelis
OFI

AEL

Levadiakos

Olympiacos

Skoda Xanthi

Veria

Location of the 2007–08 Super League Greece teams

Team	Manager	Location	Stadium	Capacity
AEK Athens	Nikos Kostenoglou	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	71,030
AEL	Giorgos Donis	Larissa	Alcazar Stadium	13,108
Apollon Kalamarias	Makis Katsavakis	Thessaloniki	Kalamaria Stadium	6,500
Aris	Dušan Bajević	Thessaloniki	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium	23,220
Asteras Tripolis	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
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	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium	16,620
Panionios	Ewald Lienen	Nea Smyrni	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,700
PAOK	Fernando Santos	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium	28,850
Skoda Xanthi	Nikos Kehagias	Xanthi	Skoda Xanthi Arena	7,422
Veria	Leonidas Yfantidis	Veria	Veria Stadium	5,373

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
Skoda 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 Tripolis	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

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Olympiacos[a] (C)	30	21	7	2	58	23	+35	70	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	AEK Athens	30	22	2	6	65	17	+48	68	Qualification for the 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[b]
6	AEL	30	11	12	7	35	30	+5	45[b]
7	Asteras Tripolis	30	11	11	8	28	24	+4	44
8	Skoda Xanthi	30	10	6	14	33	39	−6	36
9	PAOK	30	10	5	15	29	35	−6	35[c]
10	Iraklis	30	8	11	11	28	33	−5	35[c]
11	Levadiakos	30	10	3	17	31	51	−20	33
12	OFI	30	9	5	16	39	49	−10	32
13	Ergotelis	30	7	9	14	28	42	−14	30
14	Atromitos (R)	30	8	5	17	23	36	−13	29	Relegation to the Beta Ethniki
15	Veria (R)	30	5	8	17	21	44	−23	23
16	Apollon Kalamarias[a] (R)	30	5	8	17	27	57	−30	22

Source: Super League Greece
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th decision match.
According to the official Super League playoff regulation, the position after the playoffs replaces the regular season position.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The match of Apollon Kalamarias against Olympiacos, originally ended 1–0 to the home side, but later 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 (Roman Wallner). Apollon were deducted by one point.
2. Head-to-head record: Panionios–AEL 3–1, AEL–Panionios 1–0.
3. Head-to-head record: PAOK–Iraklis 3–0, Iraklis–PAOK 1–0.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	AEL	APK	ARIS	AST	ATR	ERG	IRA	LEV	OFI	OLY	PAO	PGSS	PAOK	XAN	VER
AEK Athens		1–0	4–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	3–1	1–2	3–0	4–0	4–0	1–1	2–3	2–0	3–0	5–1
AEL	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	0–0	1–1
Apollon Kalamarias	0–1	1–1		0–0	2–2	0–2	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–3[a]	1–3	0–2	0–2	1–0	1–0
Aris	0–1	1–1	2–2		2–0	2–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	3–1	2–0	1–0
Asteras Tripolis	2–1	0–1	1–1	0–0		1–0	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–0
Atromitos	0–1	2–0	3–0	1–2	0–2		1–2	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–3	0–1	0–2	0–0	2–3	1–0
Ergotelis	1–4	0–0	2–2	0–1	0–3	0–0		1–0	2–1	1–1	3–3	0–3	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
Iraklis	0–1	1–1	5–2	0–2	0–0	1–1	0–1		1–0	1–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1
Levadiakos	0–4	0–1	2–0	2–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	3–0		0–3	1–3	0–4	1–0	2–0	2–1	5–3
OFI	1–4	0–0	3–2	0–1	0–3	0–1	4–1	2–0	1–2		0–1	4–1	1–2	2–0	2–0	3–0
Olympiacos	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	4–0	6–2		1–1	4–1	2–1	2–1	1–0
Panathinaikos	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	3–1	0–0		2–1	2–0	0–0	1–0
Panionios	0–3	3–1	2–1	0–3	4–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–3	0–4	1–0		0–0	2–2	3–2
PAOK	0–4	1–0	4–1	3–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	2–2	1–1	0–1	3–1		0–1	2–0
Skoda Xanthi	0–1	1–1	6–1	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–3	4–1	1–0	1–4	3–2	1–2	1–0		2–0
Veria	0–1	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	3–1	2–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–1

Source: Worldfootball.net
Legend: 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.

Play-offs

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 Super League 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 Super League 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

Play-off table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
2	Panathinaikos	6	4	2	0	14	5	+9	21	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	AEK Athens	6	2	2	2	10	11	−1	16	Qualification for the UEFA Cup second qualifying round
4	Aris[a]	6	1	2	3	9	9	0	7
5	Panionios	6	1	2	3	7	15	−8	5	Qualification for the Intertoto Cup second round

Source: Super League Greece
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 Cup performance.

Matches

Aris v Panathinaikos

23 April 2008 Matchday 1	Aris	1–1	Panathinaikos	Thessaloniki
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Koke 74'	Report	Papadopoulos 87' (pen.)	Stadium: Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium Attendance: 6,140 Referee: Dimitrios Kyrkos (Epirus)

AEK Athens v Panionios

23 April 2008 Matchday 1	AEK Athens	5–0	Panionios	Marousi
21:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Edinho 28' Rivaldo 39', 77' Blanco 74' Kallon 90+1'	Report		Stadium: Olympic Stadium Attendance: 7,372 Referee: Michalis Germanakos (Athens)

Panionios v Aris

30 April 2008 Matchday 2	Panionios	1–0	Aris	Nea Smyrni
16:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Kumordzi 80'	Report		Stadium: Nea Smyrni Stadium Attendance: 1,049 Referee: Giorgos Daloukas (Thessaly)

Panathinaikos v AEK Athens

30 April 2008 Matchday 2	Panathinaikos	4–1	AEK Athens	Ampelokipoi
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Papadopoulos 8' Mattos 27' Ivanschitz 32', 45'	Report	Rivaldo 71'	Stadium: Leoforos Alexandras Stadium Attendance: 8,528 Referee: Dimitris Kalopoulos (Thessaloniki)

AEK Athens v Aris

4 May 2008 Matchday 3	AEK Athens	1–0	Aris	Marousi
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Liberopoulos 54'	Report		Stadium: Olympic Stadium Attendance: 9,995 Referee: Georgios Kasnaferis (Athens)

Panionios v Panathinaikos

4 May 2008 Matchday 3	Panionios	1–2	Panathinaikos	Nea Smyrni
21:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Djebbour 74'	Report	Manucho 16', 82'	Stadium: Nea Smyrni Stadium Attendance: 1,996 Referee: Ilias Stavridis (Pieria)

Aris v AEK Athens

7 May 2008 Matchday 4	Aris	4–0	AEK Athens	Thessaloniki
16:45 EEST (UTC+3)	Nebegleras 6' Javito 39', 48' Koke 55'	Report		Stadium: Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium Attendance: 2,257 Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (Heraklion)

Panathinaikos v Panionios

7 May 2008 Matchday 4	Panathinaikos	3–0	Panionios	Ampelokipoi
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Karagounis 21', 43' Manucho 64' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Leoforos Alexandras Stadium Attendance: 4,003 Referee: Christoforos Zografos (Athens)

Panathinaikos v Aris

11 May 2008 Matchday 5	Panathinaikos	3–1	Aris	Ampelokipoi
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Karagounis 63', 65' N'Doye 62'	Report	Thiago 73'	Stadium: Leoforos Alexandras Stadium Attendance: 15,420 Referee: Anastasios Kakos (Corfu)

Panionios v AEK Athens

11 May 2008 Matchday 5	Panionios	2–2	AEK Athens	Nea Smyrni
21:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Fernández 21' Skoufalis 90'	Report	Rivaldo 21' Liberopoulos 39'	Stadium: Nea Smyrni Stadium Attendance: 1,011 Referee: Lazaros Polatian (Pella)

AEK Athens v Panathinaikos

14 May 2008 Matchday 6	AEK Athens	1–1	Panathinaikos	Marousi
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Nsaliwa 51'	Report	Mattos 26'	Stadium: Olympic Stadium Attendance: 5,032 Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Thessaloniki)

Aris v Panionios

14 May 2008 Matchday 6	Aris	3–3	Panionios	Thessaloniki
19:00 EEST (UTC+3)	Calvo 6' Ivić 48' Amoroso 75' (pen.)	Report	Sialmas 8', 82' Kapetanos 38'	Stadium: Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium Attendance: 3,452 Referee: Michalis Dakos (Xanthi)

Top scorers

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

Source: Galanis Sports Data

Awards

MVP and Best Goal Awards

Matchday	MVP	Best Goal	Ref
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th	Sokratis Papastathopoulos (AEK Athens)	Merkourios Karaliopoulos (Apollon Kalamarias )	[2]
11th	Georgios Georgiadis (PAOK)	Ieroklis Stoltidis (Olympiacos)	[3]
12th	Rafik Djebbour (Panionios)	Darko Kovačević (Olympiacos)	[4]
13th
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
19th
20th	Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (PAOK)	Luciano Fonseca (Iraklis)	[5]
21st
22nd	Maciej Bykowski (Veria)	Rafał Grzelak (Skoda Xanthi)	[6]
23rd	Koke (Aris)	Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos)	[7]
24th
25th
26th
27th
28th
29th
30th	Ismael Blanco (AEK Athens)	Lampros Choutos (Panionios)	[8]

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 2 December 2008.^[9]

Award	Winner	Club
Greek Player of the Season	Dimitris Salpingidis	Panathinaikos
Foreign Player of the Season	Darko Kovačević Ismael Blanco	Olympiacos AEK Athens
Young Player of the Season	Sokratis Papastathopoulos	AEK Athens
Goalkeeper of the Season	Antonis Nikopolidis	Olympiacos
Golden Boot	Ismael Blanco	AEK Athens
Manager of the Season	Dušan Bajević	Aris