The season started for the first time in three years with the same coach at the team's bench, Massimo Carrera, but in the shadow of the fourth consecutive lost cup final in September. Theoretically, the club had made changes to improve their roster, buying Damian Szymański who was previously on loan, while signing Ionuț Nedelcearu, Yevhen Shakhov, Levi García, Muamer Tanković and Karim Ansarifard among others, with several of the players that arrived had unknown or with little experience at a high level. On the other hand, Vasilis Barkas, Marios Oikonomou, Niklas Hult, Daniele Verde and Victor Klonaridis departed, while the permanent stay of Ognjen Vranješ and Sergio Araujo once again did not occur. It was also the season that followed the interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in no actual pre-season preparation during summer with the clubs prioritising the protection of their players and staff from COVID-19 and then organize their competitive plans, while all the games of the season were in front of empty stands.[1]
Luck smiled for AEK, as the draw for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League brought them facing St. Gallen. Due to a busy schedule and the consequences of the pandemic, UEFA had decided that the matches of the qualifying rounds as well as the play-off rounds in all of their competitions would be single-legged.[2] The match was set to be played at Kybunpark and in a nervous and uneventful match, AEK had the initiative, while Garcia's entrance in the second half gave them the boost they needed and at the 73rd minute the Greek club won a penalty, which was taken by Oliveira. Despite the goalkeeper saving the penalty, the Portoguese striker scored in the rebound with a header making the 0–1, which was the final score. In the play-off round, AEK were drawn to face Wolfsburg at the Olympic Stadium. The yellow-blacks started ideally and won a penalty which was saved by the goalkeeper. From that moment on, the Germans started to press and took the lead at the end of half-time. AEK did not give up the match and equalized with an elusive shot from outside the area by Simões. Wolfsburg tried to regain the lead but the defense of AEK held well and in the last counterattack of the match, Livaja served a long precision ball to Ansarifard, who stepped forward, feinted and slotted low to the left and made the 2–1, giving AEK the qualification to the group stage.
UEFA's draw placed AEK Athens in Group G, alongside Braga, Leicester City and Zorya Luhansk. With terrible performances in all matches with the exception of an imposing away victory against Zorya and a good image in the home defeat against Leicester, AEK's European course ended poorly, as they did not manage to claim the qualification and finished last in the group.
AEK were going well in the league, but the turing point where the team's performance fell as the previous seasons was after the trip to Ukraine away game against Zorya. On AEK's return from Luhansk, five players and their coach were diagnosed with COVID-19,[3][4] with the result that the team suddenly lost its identity and began to display the competitive issues of previous seasons. A series of bad results, some incidents of indiscipline by key players and some questionable choices of the coach brought the first rifts with the management and after a series of poor performances the contract of Massimo Carrera was terminated[5] alongside the resignation of the technical director, Ilija Ivić.[6] The former footballer of the club who had just retired in the summer as a player, Panagiotis Kone, took over as the new technical director[7] and as the new coach, an old acquaintance, Manolo Jiménez in his fourth spell at AEK,[8] with the aim, as in the previous ones, to first improve the defense and then take the team as high as possible. The aftermath of the winter transfer period was the departure of Marko Livaja, after his unwillingness to renew his contract, in which the management reacted by putting him in inactivity from the team and led in his mutual contract termination, while no substantial strengthening was made. At the start the Spaniard seemed to improve the competitive performance, but yet again the team collapsed. In the cup, after two expected but not easy qualifications against Apollon Smyrnis and Volos, faced another embarrassing elimination from PAOK with two defeats in the semi-finals. The regular season ended with the team struggling to finish third, but the real shock came in the play-offs.
The four defeats both home and away against Olympiacos and PAOK respectively, with a humiliating 1–5 home defeat from the former, made the atmosphere even heavier. It was fortunate for the players, the coach and the administration that the matches were held without crowd that would probably have led to heavy incidents. The team was close to an absolute disaster with a fifth-place finish, which meant the absence from the European competitions, but a 0–1 win at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium, brought AEK finishing fourth, leaving Panathniakos out of the next season's European competitions.[9]
NOTE: The players are the ones that have been announced by the AEK Athens' press release. No edits should be made unless a player arrival or exit is announced. Updated 16 May 2021, 23:59 UTC+3.
Source: Super League Greece, Soccerway Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points (Regular season and play-off); 3) Head-to-head goal difference (Regular season and play-off); 4) Regular season position.[61] (C) Champions Notes:
The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal, then by shirt number and then alphabetically by surname. Clean sheets in games where both goalkeepers participated are awarded to the goalkeeper who started the game. Goalkeepers with no appearances are not included.
