Olympiacos Piraeus
On 9 April 2000, the day of the Greek parliament elections, Olympiacos' chairman Sokratis Kokkalis sacked manager Alberto Bigon. Matzourakis was the manager of Skoda Xanthi by this time, but on 10 April 2000, one day after Bigon left, Matzourakis signed for 1,5 year in Olympiacos.
By this time, Olympiacos was first in the league with 68 points, 1 point over Panathinaikos. Matzourakis promised he will lead the team to 8 wins in the 8 remaining matches, that meant Olympiacos wins the championship.
His first match in the team was against Iraklis at OAKA. Olympiacos started the game well, they had many misses, but they won only 1–0 with a goal by Luciano de Souza in the 90+2 minute. Olympiacos continued winning and remained first, although Panathinaikos lost 1–0 away to Panahaiki and Matzourakis' team, with 8 wins in 8 games, celebrated its fourth consecutive championship.
In the summer transfer period, Zlatko Zahovic was transferred to Valencia FC, although other high-class players, such as Ze Elias, Grigoris Georgatos (on loan from Inter), Par Zetterberg, Christian Karembeu, Gabriel Alvez and the young Nery Castillo, moved to Olympiacos. With these additions, Matzourakis' team became more powerful and celebrated wins over Olympique Lyonnais (2–1) and Valencia FC (1–0) at home in the 2000–01 Champions League. Although, Olympiacos was unable to win away, and due to a loss to Heerenveen S.C. 1–0 in Holland, the Greek champions finished 3rd with 9 points and failed to qualify to the second round. Due to this, Olympiacos fans were booing Matzourakis in the match against Liverpool FC (2–2) for the UEFA Cup.
In the final match of the group stage against Olympique Lyonnais at Gerland, Matzourakis made a substitution changing Giovanni, and the Brazilian attacked his coach verbally, with Matzourakis responding. This incident forced the fans to boo Olympiacos' coach at the match against Liverpool.
This, along with an argue with Lampros Choutos, forced Matzourakis to leave the club, while Olympiacos was first in the league, 4 points over Panathinaikos and AEK. His successor Takis Lemonis continued, winning the championship 12 points over Panathinaikos and 17 points over AEK.
Read more about this topic: Ioannis Matzourakis