2007–08 Super League Greece
72nd season of top-tier football league in Greece
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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.
| |
| 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 | 252 |
| Goals | 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
| Promoted from 2006–07 Beta Ethniki |
Relegated from 2006–07 Super League Greece |
|---|---|
| Asteras Tripolis Levadiakos Veria |
Kerkyra Egaleo Ionikos |
Stadiums and personnel
Managerial changes
| Team | Outgoing manager | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAOK |  Georgios 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 Kechagias |
22 October 2007 |
| OFI |  Reiner Maurer |
12 November 2007 | 13th | Georgios 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 |
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:
- 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.
- Head-to-head record: Panionios–AEL 3–1, AEL–Panionios 1–0.
- Head-to-head record: PAOK–Iraklis 3–0, Iraklis–PAOK 1–0.
Results
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 | PAO | AEK | ARIS | PGSS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Panathinaikos | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 5 | +9 | 21 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round | 4–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 | ||
| 3 | AEK Athens | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | −1 | 16 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup second qualifying round | 1–1 | 1–0 | 5–0 | ||
| 4 | Aris[a] | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 1–1 | 4–0 | 3–3 | |||
| 5 | Panionios | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 15 | −8 | 5 | Qualification for the Intertoto Cup second round | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–0 |
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:
- Aris were guaranteed at least to play in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup second qualifying round through their Greek Cup performance.
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 |
Attendances
Olympiacos drew the highest average home attendance in the 2007–08 edition of the Super League Greece.[10]
| # | Team | Average attendance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olympiacos | 24,196 |
| 2 | AEK Athens | 21,551 |
| 3 | PAOK | 11,394 |
| 4 | Panathinaikos | 9,213 |
| 5 | Aris | 7,712 |
| 6 | AEL | 4,612 |
| 7 | Iraklis | 3,768 |
| 8 | Ergotelis | 3,382 |
| 9 | OFI | 3,134 |
| 10 | Asteras Tripolis | 3,045 |
| 11 | Atromitos | 2,437 |
| 12 | Panionios | 2,372 |
| 13 | Skoda Xanthi | 2,255 |
| 14 | Apollon Kalamarias | 1,863 |
| 15 | Veria | 1,752 |
| 16 | Levadiakos | 1,736 |
