vs. 
Aris Thessaloniki – Manchester City
Tuesday 15th February, 5:00pm
Europa League, Knock-out phase, Round of 32
After the defeat in this weekend’s Manchester derby, City must quickly lick their wounds and get ready for a new tough battle as the club travels to Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, for the first knock-out round of the UEFA Europa League. The opponents are Aris Thessaloniki, named after Ares, the Greek god of war.
The opponents
Although hailing from the Greek province of Macedonia, home of Alexander the Great – the infamous warrior king who conquered most of the known world – Aris’ main strength is actually not on the road. Instead the club boasts a very impressive home record: they have not lost a home game in European competitions in 42 years, having gone 25 games undefeated at the Kleanthis Vikelidis stadium. Can City end this impressive streak on Tuesday?
Aris are currently 8th in the Greek Super League, far behind leaders Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, but with Europa League qualification in sight. The team is only three points behind 5th placed AO Kavala. In the 2009/2010 season, Aris finished 5th in the league, but climbed to 4th spot in the play-offs following the regular season.
Funnily enough, Aris display quite a few similarities with our beloved Manchester City. Both clubs come from the second cities of their respective countries, and both have historically been successful, but with very little to show for over the last 30 years.
After its foundation in 1914, Aris won numerous regional and national championships before entering a long period of decline. The last silverware picked up by the club was the domestic cup in the 1969/-70 season. Sine the 80’s the club have struggled both on and off the pitch. Aris were relegated from the Greek Super League in both 1997 and 2005 and have many times been on the verge of bankruptcy. Contradictory to City, though, the salvation has not been an external billionaire taking over the club. Instead Aris have turned to the fans for stability and financial support. In 2006 the “Aris Friends’Club” was founded – an organisation through which supporters can buy shares in the club, enabling them to vote as well as to enter as candidates in the elections for club president. Aris Friends’Club is today the majority owner of the football club.
Aris play their home games at the 22,800 seater, the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium. According to the club’s website, tickets have been sold out for the game against City, who are expected to bring around 1,000 supporters to Thessaloniki. Whether they will find a “Let’s all do the Aris” to borrow from our Greek hosts remains to be seen.
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What will the City fans bring back from their trip to Thessaloniki?
Way to the knock-out phase
Aris entered the Europa League in the third qualifying round, beating Polish side Jagiellonia Bia?ystok with 4-3 on aggregated. In the play-off round, Aris fended off Austria Wien by winning 1-0 at home at the Kleanthis Vikelidis stadium and drawing 1-1 away in Vienna, thus qualifying for the Europa League group stage. Although ending up in a tough group with defending Europa League champions, Atlético Madrid, Champions League relegates, Rosenborg, and Germans side, Bayer Leverkusen, Aris managed to secure a place in the knock-out phase. The club finished 2nd in the group behind the Germans after home wins against both Atlético Madrid and Rosenborg.
City entered the competition in the play-off round, seeing Romanian side Timi?oara off with an aggregated 3-0 win. City then went on to win its group ahead of Lech Poznan, Juventus and Red Bull Salzburg.
The match
Both teams go into Tuesday game with an identical and questionable run of form: LWDDL.
I won’t pretend to know too much about the Aris team, but the one player to look out for is defender and set-pieces specialist, Darcy Dolce Neto (what a name!). With 5 league goals this season, the Brazilian is the top scorer for the Greek side. The rest of the squad mainly consists of Greek players and semi-obscure journey men. A City-related curiosity: Old City player, Nery Castillo, joined Aris on loan on January 19th of this year from Shakhtar Donetsk. He’s so far played three games for the club.
Blast from the past – will Nery Castillo play against his old club, Manchester City?
City manager, Roberto Mancini, has nearly a fully fit squad to choose from. Young winger, Adam Johnson, is obviously still out with an ankle ligament injury, but both Dutch power house, Nigel de Jong, and Italian wunderkind and enfant terrible, Mario Balotelli, are hoped to be available for selection.
Given City’s poor form of late and its somewhat arrogant attitude to cup games against (on paper) weaker opposition, this cup tie is a very hard one to predict. Much depends on how Mancini will approach the game – will he see it as an opportunity to rest key players and hope to hold on to a good result for the return game at Eastlands, or will he field his strongest side and aim to decide the tie already after 90 minutes?
My guess is somewhere in between. Yaya Toure will most likely be rested after the tough game at Old Trafford, giving way for veteran Patrick Vieira. It’s likely that de Jong will feature for at least 45 minutes, but I think that Balotelli – if fit – will be eased back, probably only getting a cameo appearance from the bench. With Tevez and/or Silva being rested Jo might be included in the City strike force once again, with Shaun Wright-Phillips likely to claim one of the midfield spots after his current spell of good form. In the back four, I would not be surprised to see Boateng and Kolo Toure getting game time.
Prediction: Aris 1 – 1 City
A massive thanks to mr_nool of www.mancityfans.net for this fantastic Europa League match preview