Starting the game with several players that did not had many playing time so far, Aris drew 1-1 against Al Fayha. Despite the obvious superiority, our team failed to capitalize on the many clear chances they created, especially in the first half. Aris opened the scoring at the 34th minute with a close range strike by Sawo, while the Saudis equalized in a counterattack at 63' through Sakala.
In the second half our coach made 5 substitutions, giving the chance for a full ninety minutes to six players.
As Aliaksei Shpileuski had announced after the friendly against Hamburg, starting from today's game, he wanted to give the players more playing time (compared to the 45’ minutes that was the maximum in the previous games). That's why he had only 18 players at his disposal for today.
The 10 players who were left out for the match, Urosevic, Nikolic, Correia, Yago, Gomis, Struski, Kokorin, Mayambela, Vana Alves and Zadro, had a training session on the pitch in the morning (Caju continued with a therapy session) and then travelled with the rest of the squad to watch the match.
Aris starting eleven were: Sofroniou, Demetriou, Aboubacar, Moussounda, Sane, Bengtsson, Sarfo, Brown, Semedo, Kvilitaia, Sawo.
In the second half Aris started with: Sofroniou, Demetriou, Aboubacar, Moussounda, Boakye, Montnor, Sarfo, Matysik, Kovacev, Theocharous and Semedo.
Monday is a day off so the players can rest before entering the final stretch which include the two strongly games ahead.
