football rambles

 What a great trip this was to the seat of civilisation and we also got to meet up with Phil, who was here for the game later in the week between AEK and Dynamo Kyiv. We were at a more down-to-earth fixture though between Apollon Smyrnis and Levadiakos in the Greek Super League.  Apollon are one of the smaller teams in the capital and are mainly supported by people who identify with coming from Smyrna, which is now part of Turkey. The ground was a lot more homely than the AEK stadium that we also visited and quite away out of the city. It was also a bit rundown in that the promotion banner was left rotting net to a skip full of cut grass near the entrance to the mains stand. It really was 'proper football'. The game itself was notable for the fact that it was the first time that I had seen VAR in the flesh and was a precursor for what was to come in England. It was especially unclear here, as one of the Levadiakos players was sent off, but it was then rescinded. Nobody was par...

  Out of the drawer today comes Apollon Smyrnis. Fortunately, it isn't too cold as the material is one of those scarves where it's just for show typical of Mediterranean climates. When we went to see them play Levadiakos in February 2018 it was the first time that I had worn a t-shirt in a ground in February and more significantly the first time we saw VAR in action. One of the confusing aspects being a red card for a Levadiakos player being overturned. It perhaps wasn't the most glamorous Greek Super League game we could have gone to, but it was what might be called proper football.  It's funny that this is the scarf that came out of the drawer today, as there is a link with Celtic in this was a bonus trip paid for by Ryan Air messing up the return flight from Glasgow. The game was held on 11 February 2018 and finished Apollon Smyrnis 1 Levadiakos 1 - Sebastian Bartolini gave Apollon the lead on 54th minute with Petros Giakoumasis getting the equaliser in the 67th. The...