Lemonis leaves Olympiacos post

Greek champions Olympiacos CFP have parted company with head coach Panagiotis Lemonis despite the club lying in second place in the Super League.

'Something must change'
The Piraeus club, who lost 3-0 at Chelsea FC last week to bow out of the UEFA Champions League in the first knockout round, have won the league title in each of the last three seasons – and in ten of the past eleven campaigns – but with six games left this time round, they trail Panathinaikos FC by a point at the top of the table. "It was decided that in such a critical stage of the season, something must change and in cases like these, the one to go is the coach," said Olympiacos chief executive Petros Kokkalis.

Champions League success
Lemonis's departure marks the end of his second spell in charge of the club having originally been Olympiacos coach between November 2000 and October 2002 prior to succeeding Trond Sollied in December 2006. In addition to their UEFA Champions League success – the wins at Werder Bremen and S.S. Lazio were Olympiacos' first in the competition and helped their progress to the knockout stages for the first time since 1998/99 – Olympiacos are also closing in on a place in the Greek Cup semi-finals following a 2-0 home win against Iraklis FC in the quarter-final first leg. Lemonis will be replaced by his assistant Josep Segura.