Late goal saves Bolton
Gary Megson surprisingly left out Nicolas Anelka
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Thursday, 29, Nov 2007 10:39
Bolton managed to scrape a draw against Aris Salonika thanks to a late goal from Stelios Giannakopoulos in the Uefa Cup this evening.
The English side were playing at home but it was Aris who were much the better side and Bolton were lucky to come away with a 1-1 draw.
Bolton manager Gary Megson surprisingly went with Kevin Davies up-front on his own, choosing to leave Nicolas Anelka and El-Hadji Diouf on the bench. And with only a target man to aim at, Bolton kept hoofing the ball up the pitch with little success.
Aris were not expected to cause a lot of problems, but they played really well in the first-half and took the lead after half-an-hour. Antonio Calvo pounced on a poor clearance from Abdoulaye Meite and fired the ball in from 12 yards.
Bolton should have got back on level terms almost immediately but defender Andy O'Brien could only smash the crossbar with his header from only a couple of yards from goal.
Megson did change his system in the second-half by pushing Stelios up-front alongside Davies, but the home side still failed to create clear-cut chances. The Bolton manager eventually brought on Anelka with 20 minutes left in the game.
Meite had a brilliant opportunity to score, but again although he jumped highest in the box he was unable to convert his header from a Diouf free-kick.
With time running out the Aris defence stayed strong, but right at the end of the game they faltered and a cross from Mikel Alonso allowed Stelios to score and secure his team a point.