There are only three match days left before the end of the regular season and Group A of A EPSA has three teams contesting for the title. Kentavros is first, Apollon Smyrnis is second by one point and Diana Ilioupolis is third, just one point behind Apollon. Only the champions will get to compete for a spot in the national divisions.

Vrilissia is a nice area on the north side of the capital and has two football teams: AO Vrilissia and Kentavros Vrilission. The former is the oldest club in the area, while the latter — who are currently leading the standings — were founded 20 years ago. They share the same ground, and today they are facing each other in what I imagined to be somewhat of a local derby.

I’ve been to the area countless times, but this was my first time watching a football game there. I rang up a friend of mine who lives close to the stadium, and he agreed to join me. He’s not remotely into football, but he told me that Vrilissia is the side he roots for out of the two.

The ground is a typical municipal stadium with one main stand. What struck me, though, is that it has a café with a huge selection of snacks you’d only find in those posh supermarkets. Usually, at best, you can get a beer and some crisps (which is what I stuck to).

We only got there a few minutes before kick-off, but the turnout was quite poor considering the importance of the match. Some more people started arriving during the first ten minutes, and the small stand eventually filled up somewhat — but it was mostly Vrilissia fans. I soon realised that Kentavros really had no following at all.

I rarely become invested in teams I don’t support, but today I wanted Vrilissia to win. Not so much because they seemed to be the “real” team of the neighbourhood, but because I want Apollon to go up. I feel that a team with such big history and following deserves to play in higher divisions — and a loss or draw for Kentavros today would make Apollon the favourites.

The game itself was very strange. One would expect Kentavros to dominate, but Vrilissia had more possession and better control of the ball in the first half. The weird part is that whenever they got close to the final third, they just wouldn’t shoot. They only made two or three shots in the second half. It really felt like they didn’t want to win.

In the stand, the small group of Vrilissia’s young lot were chanting almost non-stop against PAOK. My friend and I were trying to figure out what on earth they had against a team from Thessaloniki, but the only logical explanation is that they were just taking the piss. The chants, paired with the aforementioned style of football, made for quite a surreal experience.

Kentavros eventually scored twice, winning another very important game, and we headed to my friend’s place trying to process what we had just witnessed.