Marked for Adrián Riera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jan 2028
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match29 Jan 2028
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Moussa Wagué: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Panserraikos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Vyacheslav Karavaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A performance of 9.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match11 Dec 2027
A 1‑0 win over Volos NPS, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panserraikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Panserraikos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match9 Oct 2027
Olympiacos left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vernon de Marco, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.67 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
The one thing Nikos Karelis could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clock does Amaro Sosa’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Panserraikos could ask drops and the wages Amaro Sosa can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Panserraikos's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Panserraikos has to find a result from somewhere.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer from AEL Larisa for Alexandros Maskanakis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Panserraikos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Panserraikos, and it is a cruel one.
Match30 Jan 2027
It needed Giannis Pasas to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kifisia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
The one thing Nikos Karelis could not do
Shots: 6, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Braian Galván was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.94 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Braian Galván’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Panserraikos.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.