Stergioudas Papadopoulos L (73' Tasos) Theodoridis Ravousis Nikolaou Toskas Tsamis Nikoloudis Vagner Papaioannou MavrosScorer:Papadopoulos
All Greek fans were living in a dream, the dream of reaching the final. Unfortunately, the draw brought us the mighty Juventus. This semi-final was considered by many experts as the final since AEK and Juventus were better teams (theoretically speaking ;-) than the other two. The statistics of both teams for the home games showed 9 goals for and 0 against.
During the first half AEK's performance was excellent, and not only defended well but she was better than Juventus. On the 17th minute Juventus opened the score with Koukourentou. On the 30th minute AEK equalised with Lazaros Papadopoulos after he received a brilliant pass from Thomas Mavros. This was the first goal conceded by Juventus in the Communale Stadium. The Italians now were in shock and started playing a little bit rough, but Nikoloudis' experience kept the ball at AEK's feet. The famous Beneti was trying hard to mark Nikoloudis but without any luck.
Second half now. And AEK misses the chance. The chance to kill off the Italians and score another goal. After Nikoloudis crossed the ball, the Italian keeper Dino Joff failed to get her and the incoming Vagner just failed to push the ball into the net. Then AEK's performance started to go downhill. A beautiful goal by Tarnteli who avoided all defenders and made the second goal. On the 66' Kauzio made it 3-1. Just after a Papaioannou shot (with the right leg unfortunatelly) forced Joff to a great save, the Italians counter-attacked and despite the heroic effort of Nikolaou, Betega made it 4-1.
Wed 20 April 1977, UEFA Season Semi-Final Round, First Leg
Xristidis Intzoglou Ravousis Nikolaou Theodoridis Papadopoulos L (70' Zarzopoulos) Tsamis Vagner Papaioannou Tasos MavrosEverything was lost when Papadopoulos found himself facing Joff and shot wide. This came after Vagner crossed the ball and Mavros headed the ball down. AEK missed some minor chances on the 11th minute (Tasos), 34th minute (Vagner) and a very good chance on the 51st minute when Theodoridis crossed, Nikolaou headed the ball towards Vagner but once again his shot was not on target. It seemed that the game was going to be a draw until one of the sporadic Italian attacks brought them the winning goal (85th minute, Betega).
AEK played without the injured Nikoloudis and Toscas, the infamous Palotay refused 2 penalty claims and the Italians perfected the art of catenacio. An anecdote after the game refers to the Italians shooting from the middle of the field just to save time.
All in all, Juventus were slightly a better team but AEK gave them a run for their money. Unfortunately luck was not on our side. Fortunately I lived to see AEK writing the history books once again with the European League qualification. Listening to Jackie Charlton praising AEK on the TV, I knew that AEK has a future, as long as we remember that strength is on unity.
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