2008–09 Superleague Greece

Superleague Greece

Season	2008–09
Champions	Olympiacos 37th Greek title
Relegated	OFI Panserraikos Thrasyvoulos
UEFA Champions League	Olympiacos Panathinaikos
UEFA Europa League	AEK Athens (via domestic cup) P.A.O.K. Larissa
Matches played	252
Goals scored	519 (2.06 per match)
Average goals/game	2.16
Top goalscorer	Ismael Blanco (14) Luciano Galletti (14)
Biggest home win	Olympiacos 5–0 Iraklis
Biggest away win	Panserraikos 1–5 AEK Athens
Highest scoring	Larissa 4–3 OFI OFI 4–3 Panthrakikos Asteras 3–4 Panionios Ergotelis 2–5 Panionios
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 Superleague Greece season was the third since its establishment. It began on 31 August 2008 and ended on 26 April 2009. The league consisted of 16 teams. Participants were the 13 best teams from the 2007–08 season and three teams who have been promoted from Beta Ethniki. Olympiacos successfully defended their title after claiming their 37th title overall with three rounds remaining.

Team changes from 2007–08

Teams promoted from 2007–08 Beta Ethniki:

• Champions: Panserraikos
• Runners-up: Thrasyvoulos
• 3rd placed team: Panthrakikos

Teams relegated to 2008–09 Beta Ethniki:

• 14th placed team: Atromitos
• 15th placed team: Veria
• 16th placed team: Apollon Kalamarias

Overview

AEK Athens
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Aris
Iraklis
PAOK

Asteras

Ergotelis
OFI

Larissa

Levadiakos

Olympiacos

Panserraikos

Panthrakikos

Skoda Xanthi

Thrasyvoulos

Location of teams in 2008–09 Superleague Greece

Club	Manager	Stadium	Capacity
AEK Athens	Dušan Bajević	Athens Olympic Stadium	71,030
Aris	Mazinho	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium	22,800
Asteras Tripoli	Nikos Kostenoglou	Asteras Tripolis Stadium	4,200
Ergotelis	Nikos Karageorgiou	Pankritio Stadium	26,400
Iraklis	Oleh Protasov	Kaftanzoglio Stadium	28,028
Larissa	Marinos Ouzounidis	Alcazar Stadium	13,108
Levadiakos	Momčilo Vukotić	Levadia Municipal Stadium	8,000
OFI	Ioannis Matzourakis	Pankritio Stadium	26,400
Olympiacos	Ernesto Valverde	Karaiskakis Stadium	33,334
Panathinaikos	Henk ten Cate	Athens Olympic Stadium	71,030
Panionios	Giotis Stamatopoulos	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,700
Panserraikos	Hugo Broos	Serres Municipal Stadium	8,500
Panthrakikos	Emilio Ferrera	Komotini Municipal Stadium	4,500
PAOK	Fernando Santos	Toumba Stadium	28,850
Thrasyvoulos	Sakis Tsiolis	Fyli Municipal Stadium	3,142
Xanthi	Georgios Paraschos	Skoda Xanthi Arena	7,422

League table (regular season)

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	Head-to-head
1	Olympiacos (C)	30	22	5	3	50	14	+36	71	2009–10 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
2	PAOK	30	18	9	3	39	16	+23	63	Super League Greece 2008–09 Playoffs
3	Panathinaikos	30	17	10	3	51	18	+33	61
4	AEK Athens	30	14	13	3	40	24	+16	55
5	Larissa	30	12	13	5	36	26	+10	49
6	Aris	30	13	8	9	30	31	−1	47
7	Xanthi	30	9	11	10	25	21	+4	38
8	Panionios	30	10	7	13	40	40	0	37
9	Ergotelis	30	9	9	12	31	39	−8	36
10	Iraklis Thessaloniki	30	8	9	13	22	38	−16	33		IRA: 7 pts, 4–3 PTH: 6 pts, 1–0 AST: 2 pts, 2–4
11	Panthrakikos	30	9	6	15	23	37	−14	33
12	Asteras Tripoli	30	7	12	11	33	31	+2	33
13	Levadiakos	30	9	5	16	28	36	−8	32
14	OFI (R)	30	5	9	16	30	50	−20	24	Relegation to Beta Ethniki	OFI 0–0 PSE PSE 1–2 OFI
15	Panserraikos (R)	30	5	9	16	19	45	−26	24
16	Thrasyvoulos (R)	30	3	5	22	22	53	−31	14

Source: superleaguegreece.net (Greek)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th decision match
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

According to the official Superleague playoff regulation, the position after the playoffs replaces the regular season position.^[1]

Results

Home ╲ Away

AEK

ARI

AST

ERG

IRT

LAR

LEV

OFI

OLY

PAT

PIO

PSE

PTH

TSP

XAN

THR

AEK Athens

0–1

2–1

3–2

1–0

1–1

3–1

1–0

0–1

2–1

3–0

0–0

1–0

1–0

2–1

1–0

Aris

1–1

1–1

0–0

1–0

0–0

2–0

4–1

1–0

1–2

1–0

2–0

3–2

0–0

0–1

2–1

Asteras Tripoli

0–1

4–0

3–1

1–2

0–0

2–0

2–2

0–1

1–1

3–4

3–0

0–0

0–2

0–0

3–0

Ergotelis

1–1

3–0

0–1

0–1

2–1

1–1

1–3

1–0

1–0

2–5

2–2

0–1

0–0

0–0

1–2

Iraklis Thessaloniki

0–1

0–1

2–1

0–0

0–2

1–0

1–1

0–3

0–0

2–1

1–2

0–0

1–1

1–0

1–1

Larissa

1–1

1–1

2–1

3–2

2–0

2–1

4–3

1–1

1–1

0–0

1–1

1–2

0–0

0–1

3–0

Levadiakos

0–0

2–0

1–0

4–0

3–0

0–1

2–1

1–2

1–2

1–1

0–0

2–0

0–3

0–0

1–0

OFI

1–1

0–1

1–1

0–0

2–3

1–2

0–2

0–0

0–3

2–0

0–0

4–3

0–2

0–2

1–3

Olympiacos

2–0

2–1

3–1

2–0

5–0

0–1

1–0

2–1

0–0

4–1

4–1

2–0

2–0

2–1

2–1

Panathinaikos

0–0

4–0

1–1

2–3

2–2

3–0

2–0

3–1

0–0

2–1

3–0

3–0

3–0

2–0

3–0

Panionios

2–2

2–1

3–0

0–0

0–2

1–1

1–0

1–1

2–3

1–2

2–0

3–0

1–2

0–1

4–1

Panserraikos

1–5

1–2

0–0

0–2

0–0

1–3

1–0

1–2

0–1

0–0

0–1

1–2

1–1

1–0

1–0

Panthrakikos

1–1

0–0

0–0

1–2

1–0

0–1

1–3

2–0

0–2

1–3

1–0

2–1

0–1

0–0

1–0

PAOK

1–1

1–0

1–1

2–0

1–0

1–0

3–1

2–0

0–0

0–0

2–0

4–1

2–0

1–0

2–1

Xanthi

1–1

1–1

0–0

0–1

4–1

1–1

4–0

0–0

0–1

1–2

0–0

2–1

1–0

1–2

1–0

Thrasyvoulos

3–3

1–2

0–2

1–3

1–1

0–0

2–1

1–2

0–2

0–1

1–3

0–1

0–2

1–2

1–1

Source: galanissportsdata.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Play-offs

The play-offs for an additional Champions League spot were conducted in a home and away round robin format. Its participants have entered the mini-league with a number of bonus points based on their regular season record. Every team had the number of points earned by the fifth-placed team subtracted from its own amount of points. The result was then divided through five and rounded to the nearest whole number to determine the amount of bonus points.

The teams started the play-offs with the following number of points:

• PAOK – 3 points ((63–49) / 5 = 2.8, rounded up to 3)
• Panathinaikos – 2 points ((61–49) / 5 = 2.4, rounded down to 2)
• AEK Athens – 1 point ((55–49) / 5 = 1.2, rounded down to 1)
• Larissa – 0 points ((49 –49) / 5 = 0)

The play-off winners entered the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. Since AEK Athens have lost the final of the Greek Cup 2008–09 to Champions League-bound Olympiacos, all three Greek Europa League spots (two via league, one via domestic cup) were allotted according to the position of the respective teams in the play-off.

Play-off table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	Head-to-head
2	Panathinaikos	6	5	1	0	12	3	+9	18	2009–10 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
3	AEK Athens	6	3	2	1	8	6	+2	12	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Play-off round
4	PAOK	6	2	0	4	5	9	−4	9	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
5	Larissa	6	0	1	5	3	10	−7	1	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round

Source: superleaguegreece.net (Greek)
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
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Head-to-Head: used when head-to-head record is used to rank tied teams.

Results

Home ╲ Away	AEK	LAR	PAT	TSP
AEK Athens		3–2	0–2	3–1
Larissa	0–0		0–1	0–2
Panathinaikos	1–1	3–1		4–1
PAOK	0–1	1–0	0–1

Source: superleaguegreece.net (Greek)
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top goalscorers 14 goals Ismael Blanco (AEK Athens) Luciano Galletti (Olympiacos) 10 goals Dimitris Salpingidis (Panathinaikos) 9 goals Leonardo (Levadiakos) Maciej Żurawski (Larissa) 8 goals Danijel Cesarec (Asteras) Patrick Ogunsoto (Ergotelis) Zdravko Popović (OFI) Rafik Djebbour (AEK Athens) 7 goals Ibrahima Bakayoko (PAOK) Edinho (AEK Athens) Fabián Estoyanoff (Panionios) Lucio Filomeno (Asteras) Bennard Yao Kumordzi (Panionios) Zlatan Muslimović (PAOK) Dame N'Doye (OFI) Source: galanissportsdata.com

Top assistants 9 assists Ignacio Scocco (AEK) 7 assists Diogo (Olympiacos) Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos) Álvaro Recoba (Panionios) 6 assists Fabián Estoyanoff (Panionios) Georgios Fotakis (Larissa) Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos) Vasilios Koutsianikoulis (Ergotelis) Dimitris Salpingidis (Panathinaikos) Sérgio Conceição (PAOK) Source: galanissportsdata.com

Most valuable players (excluding goalkeepers)

Position	Player	Club	Index
1	Luciano Galletti	Olympiacos	0.250
2	Dudu Cearense	Olympiacos	0.242
3	Fernando Belluschi	Olympiacos	0.217
4	Fabián Estoyanoff	Panionios	0.215
5	Vladimir Ivić	PAOK	0.201
6	Diego Romano	Ergotelis	0.197
7	Dimitris Salpingidis	Panathinaikos	0.196
8	Leonardo	Levadiakos	0.192
9	Serge Dié	Iraklis	0.188
10	Dame N'Doye	OFI	0.183

Source: galanissportsdata.com

Transfers

Teams by region

Region	Number of teams	Teams
Attica	5	AEK Athens, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Panionios and Thrasyvoulos
Macedonia	4	Aris, Iraklis, Panserraikos and PAOK
Crete	2	Ergotelis and OFI
Thrace	2	Panthrakikos and Skoda Xanthi
Peloponnese	1	Asteras Tripoli
Central Greece	1	Levadiakos
Thessaly	1	Larissa

See also

• 2008–09 Greek Cup
• 2008–09 Beta Ethniki

External links

• Official website (Greek)
• Superleague Statistics

References

1. Playoff regulation (pdf, greek)