Olympiakos beats Red Star in fan brotherhood party

By George Georgakopoulos

Olympiakos was the winner in the red-and-white party at the Peace and Friendship Stadium on Friday as it came from behind to beat Red Star Belgrade 64-59.

A capacity crowd in Piraeus did not just push Olympiakos to another win, but also celebrated the friendship between the two clubs that had also been the subject of a spectacular reception by the Red Star fans a few weeks ago in Belgrade, when the Serbs even got to sing the songs of Olympiakos fans.

Similarly the Greeks sang a Serb song for Red Star, while honoring the memory of the Belgrade club’s fan who was killed in Istanbul by a Galatasaray fan.

The game proved once again that Olympiakos coach Yiannis Sfairopoulos has got plenty of work to do to bring his team to the standard its fans expect, as visiting Red Star led for almost the first 36 minutes of the game, until Costas Sloukas turned things around for Olympiakos to guide it to victory.

Led by an impressive Boban Marjanovic (17 points), Red Star was one up at half-time (28-27) and stretched its advantage to six after the third period (48-42).

However Olympiakos tightened its defense when it really mattered and held its visitor to just 11 points in the last period to snatch victory from the jaws of a home defeat.

This was the eighth win for Olympiakos in nine games, mathematically securing the top spot in the group for the Greeks.

Vassilis Spanoulis was the hosts’ top scorer with 15 points.