Donis pleased with Rovers return

Perfect night
On a perfect night for Greek football all five Super League participants registered UEFA Cup first round victories. AEK Athens FC won 3-0 against Austrian champions FC Salzburg, Aris Thessaloniki FC defeated Real Zaragoza 1-0, while both Panionios NFC and Panathinaikos FC prevailed 2-0 and 2-1 in their respective trips to FC Sochaux-Montbéliard and FC Artmedia Petržalka. Larissa FC, meanwhile, marked their return from 19 years in the European wilderness with a stylish 2-0 win against Blackburn Rovers FC.

'Very happy'
Although not their own home ground, the Panthessaliko Stadium in Volos was the scene of Larissa's Greek Cup triumph against Panathinaikos in May and it again proved a lucky venue as Georgios Donis's side ran out comfortable winners. Donis, who played for Blackburn from 1996 to 1998, was pleased at putting one over on his former employers but regretted not having put the tie out of sight. "I’m very happy with the result but not with the scoreline," he said. "We had a lot of chances and should have scored more.

'Hard game'
"The score gives us a 50 per cent chance of qualification," he continued. "We are expecting a very hard game at Blackburn. Ewood Park is a small pitch and we'll be under a lot of pressure. However, we should enjoy this result. We wanted to make our fans happy and that's what we've done. We had the time to prepare for this encounter, since there has been no league action in recent weeks."

'Disappointed'
For Blackburn, this was their first defeat since the FA Cup semi-final loss against Chelsea FC in April, and manager Mark Hughes acknowledged that his side were lucky not to have suffered a heavier defeat. "We are all disappointed with the levels we've achieved tonight," he said. "I didn't expect this result. From our point of view, the one positive to come out is that we are still in the tie. Luckily we didn't concede any more goals and 2-0 is a result that we can claw back."