Small town, small stadium, but a football club in ascendancy. Meet Greece's own Ironi Kiryat Shmona
The word asteras in Greek means "star" and without any doubt, in recent years the star of the Greek football club Asteras Tripoli F.C. has been on the rise. The blue-and-yellow kitted club playing in the Greek Superleague have put themselves on the map of Greek domestic football and there are no signs they have any intention letting that situation change anytime in the near future.
While Asteras Tripoli F.C. were established in the early 1930's, the real story of Maccabi Tel Aviv's rivals in the Europa League play-off round begins seventy years later, in 2001. In that year this modest club began a march forward that took them up the ladder of four domestic leagues over the course of only six seasons. The similarities to Israel's own Ironi Kiryat Shmona at the beginning of the "noughties", already considerable, become all that more striking when you take into account that in the same season, 2007/8, and separated only by a week, both teams celebrated landmark promotions to their respective top flights and opened up a brand new chapter in their clubs' history. And like their Israeli counterparts, Asteras wasted no time in sprinkling their "stardust" over their more prestigious rivals in the country's top-tier football league. Among their victims in their first Superleague season were Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, PAOK and AEK Athens, who apparently were ill-prepared to deal with the "new kid on the block". In fact, Asteras were the first club in Greek Superleague history to beat all four of those teams (PAOK twice!) in their first season in the top flight. In that season Asteras finished seventh, with an historic appearance in Europe only escaping them at the very last moment.
Despite this promising start Asteras spent the following seasons cooling their heels in the lower reaches of the top tier, and only escaped Kiryat Shmona's fate of later relegation due to a match-fixing scandal that spelled the end of a number of other clubs in the Greek Superleague. And again parallel to Kiryat Shoma, the 2011/12 season was the start of a turnaround in their fortunes which may not have led to a league title like Kiryat Shmona but has certainly kept them on an upward curve ever since. And despite the fact that, for the moment at least, the prospect of a Superleague championship for Asteras Tripoli F.C. remains in the realm of fantasy, it's reasonable to assume the club are quite pleased with their progress so far.
Another milestone in the club's advance was their first European appearance in the 2012/13 season, a place in the draw for the second qualifying round of the Europa League. Their opponents were the Azerbaijani side Inter Baku and the Greeks emerged victorious after a successful penalty shoot-out settled a 2-2 aggregate. Their third qualifying round opponents were Portuguese side C.S. Marítimo and only a single away goal in Tripoli marked the end of Asteras' European campaign that season. The following season Asteras entered directly into round three, but their rivals, Austrian stalwarts Rapid Vienna, proved too strong an opponent and Asteras emerged at the wrong end of a 4-2 aggregate.
This year Asteras continued their European learning curve in the second qualifying round where they quickly dispatched Finnish side Rovaniemen Palloseura. This earned them a tough third-round draw against German Bundesliga side Mainz 05, but it was in the face of this formidable opposition that Asteras produced their biggest upset. Undeterred by a 1-0 loss in Germany, at home the Greeks found a dramatic late score to stretch their winning margin to two goals to turn the tie around with a convincing 3-1 triumph. With a capacity of only 7,616 spectators, Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium may be small but apparently it was just what the Greek side needed. On the night some 5,000 fans turned up for the historic event, 3,000 more than might be expected at an ordinary league match.
Now Asteras are just two matches away from the club's first ever qualification for the group stage of the Europa League. If the parallels with Ironi Kiryat Shmona hold, it's fair to note that to date Maccabi Tel Aviv have won 10 of their 17 encounters against their Israeli Premier League rivals. In that case Asteras Tripoli F.C. may just have to wait another year before crossing that historic threshold.
