Olympiakos beats Asteras 3-1, wins 26th Greek Cup

Olympiakos beats Asteras 3-1, wins 26th Greek Cup

Published May. 11, 2013 11:09 p.m. ET

Olympiakos won a record 26th Greek Cup when it beat Asteras 3-1 in extra time in a bad-tempered final on Saturday.

Djamel Abdoun scored a goal and assisted on another as Olympiakos achieved the league-cup double for a 16th time.

David Fuster and Rafik Djebbour also scored for Olympiakos, while Rayos opened the scoring for Asteras, which was playing in its first cup final.

Asteras players twice, in the 69th and 117th minutes, appealed for a penalty in vain.

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Replays showed that, on the first occasion, at 1-1, defender Yannis Maniatis used his hand to stop the ball on the goal-line.

After the referee awarded Olympiakos a penalty with which Abdoun scored the game's final goal in the 119th, frustration boiled over and the teams attacked each other. The punchup lasted some four minutes before the game resumed.

Referee Thanassis Yahos showed only two red cards for the incident, to Olympiakos' Francois Modesto and Asteras' Emanuel Perrone. The ref also issued 10 yellow cards throughout the tense game, including two to Asteras' bench when it erupted in the second half asking for a penalty.

Asteras was livid at the referee.

''It wasn't Olympiakos which won, it was that punk Yahos and his posse of punks,'' Asteras co-owner Dimitris Bakos said, referring to the assistants.

For the first time in a Greek Cup final, two extra assistants were used, each watching a goal-line. Despite this, mistakes were made, and not only in the case of the non-awarded penalty.

Olympiakos had to play the final minutes of regular time and all of the extra time with, essentially, 10 players, as defender Jose Holebas injured his hamstring. He immediately went to the bench asking to be replaced, not realizing that his team had used all three of its substitutions. Holebas remained on the pitch, his left thigh heavily taped before extra time, but he was of no use.

Other players from both teams developed cramps during extra time, and Asteras defender Sebastian Bartolini limped on an injured knee.

Olympiakos dominated most of the game but Asteras was dangerous on counterattacks in the first half and opened the scoring in the 14th. A swift exchange of passes between Perrone and Ximo Navarro led to the latter shooting from close range. Goalkeeper Roy Carroll blocked the shot and the trialing Rayos blasted in the rebound.

Fuster equalized for Olympiakos in the 42nd off a cross from Abdoun.

Djebbour, who entered the game in the 72nd, put Olympiakos ahead in the 98th. Asteras goalkeeper Marton Fulop dove to his right to parry a Fuster header but was unable to stop Djebbour scoring on the rebound.

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