Aris Thessaloniki Preview

By Mark Heys
November 28 2007

Bolton Wanderers will be looking to follow on from Saturday's remarkable 1-0 victory over Manchester United by getting their first victory of the UEFA Cup group stages when Greek side Aris Thessaloniki visit the Reebok Stadium on Thursday night.

The weekend success over the Premiership holders was only the Trotters second league win of the season and fourth in all competitions so manager Gary Megson will want to gain the clubs first back to back victory since March.

Aris had a contrast in fortunes in their last game as they sunk to only their second defeat of the season when going down 2-0 to mid-table side Levadiakos.

They currently lie in fourth place in the Greek top division behind Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens with sixteen points from their opening nine games and five behind leaders AEK.

Bolton are likely to shuffle their side ahead of an important Premier League game away to Liverpool on Sunday so there could be chances for the likes of Ali Al-Habsi, Mikel Alonso, Andranik Teimourian, Jlloyd Samuel, Lubomir Michalik, Daniel Braaten and Gary Speed.

Swedish winger Christian Wilhelmsson made a succesful return from injury with a cameo appearance against United and he could be handed a more prominent role.

If they feature then Nicky Hunt, Kevin Nolan and Danny Guthrie will be playing their last games until the next phase of the competition against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday week.

Greek star Stelios Giannakopoulos, a veteran of seven campaigns with Olympiakos prior to moving to Bolton in 2003, will be hoping to play against some of his fellow countrymen.

Aris have a number of Brazilian and Spanish players to compliment their Greek contingent, most notably defender Ronaldo who won a medal for Brazil in the 1996 Olympic Games.

Former Malaga, Marseille and Sporting Lisbon striker Sergio Koke currently tops the Aris goalscoring charts and he is joined by Bolivian Ronald Garcia on two goals.

DID YOU KNOW:

Aside from Stelios Giannakopoulos there has been another Greek player on Bolton's books as Kostas Konstantinidis had a three game loan spell with the club late in the 2001-2002 season.

Stan Anderson, manager of Bolton during an ill-fated spell in the 1980-1981 season, had a spell in charge of AEK Athens during the early 1970's.