Olympiacos’ Youth team gave today its first game in the NextGen Series competition. They faced Athletic Bilbao, at the “San Mames” venue, and were defeated by 4-0. Our team played well for the first 45 minutes.
On the second half, though, things were a bit different. The Vasconians, having in their lineup 4 players that train with the first team and 2 more who play for the Spanish National U20 team, were superior in the last 45 minutes of the game. Our team’s players gave their best, but were unable to perform equally well on the second half as well. They earned much experience, though.
Rikspun took a shot on 12’ but missed by a bit. So did Ioannidis on 15’. On both 18’ and 19’ Vlachos made two exceptional saves, on the shots by Bengoa and Diez. On 27 minutes, though, he tripped Otheo Gomez in the box and Cabrera scored from the penalty spot.
On 50’ Otheo Gomez scored Bilbao’s second goal and on 60’ Bengoa made it 3-0. Santamaria marked the final score on 72’. Olympiacos seemed a bit blocked by the opponents’ game and only managed to create a good opportunity with Lykogiannis on 80’. The young Greek player was cut off by the Bilbao defenders.
ATHLETIC BILBAO U20: Arrizabalaga, Etxeberria, Iriando, Zil Oses, Laporte, Undabarrena, Otheo Gomez (61’ Lekue), Cabrera, Fernandez, Bengoa (61’ Santamaria, Seguin Sid (70’ Rahmani).
OLYMPIACOS U20: Vlachos, Karagounis, Sotirakos (76′ Dimakakos), Rougalas, Leandro, Siopis, Soukias (46′ Voutsiotis), Liras (67′ Pedakis), Lykogiannis, Rikspun (76′ Gino), Ioannidis (46′ Vergos).
Gonzalez Esteban was the referee, with Palazio Frante and Gomez Lantazabal as his assistants. Ladim Santigiana was the fourth official.
* About 3000 spectators watched the game in “San Mames”.
On the groups second match, Arsenal beat Marseill by a 3-0 score. Thus, the standings are:
| TEAM | Matches | Points | Goals |
| Bilbao | 1 | 3 | 4-0 |
| Arsenal | 1 | 3 | 3-0 |
| Marseille | 1 | 0 | 0-3 |
| Olympiacos | 1 | 0 | 0-4 |
