Having their foot on the … “accelerator” from the very beginning, the guys of Marinos Ouzounidis did an impressive appearance and controlled the game totally winning by a fair and wide 4-0 the team of Asteras Tripolis at “Ap. Nicolaidis” stadium, for the first leg of the fourth stage of the Greek Cup.
The “Greens” started the match disposing an offensive mood and pressing their guests high. Very quickly, just in the 6th minute, this pressure was fruitful as Nuno Reis scored his first goal wearing the green jersey after shooting powerfully outside the box. The ball touched the foot of Dimoutsos and went straight to Donnaroumma’s goalposts!
This goal “unleashed” the feet of Panathinaikos’ players, who continued in the same rhythm and found easily their shooting positions. In the 32nd minute Klonaridis took the ball after this was tackled by Villafañes and scored duplicating the goals of the ¨Shamrock¨. The first half ended 2-0, as the guest team didn´t threatened at all; a dangerous header by Manias was the unique exception.
The second half was even better for the hosts! Asteras tried to ascend and to press, opening corridors for Panathinaikos. These spaces were excellently used mainly by Villafañes and Mpoku who created continuously chances for scoring. This way, a third goal was about to come. Mpoku shot a ball to Villafañes who scored the third one in the 61st minute. In the 68th minute it was the turn of Mpoku to get the ball by his Argentinean teammate and as he was entering the box he was overthrown by the opponent goalkeeper.
The referee allowed a penalty which was executed by Mpoku who scored the fourth goal. The rest of the duel went on smoothly, without any change or any additional goal. Gaidoutsik was correctly expelled and Asteras continued the game with 10 players, having just one more chance in the 90th minute after a shoot by Ioannidis went straight to the post.
This score allowed Panathinaikos to be just a step away from the semi-final of the Greek Cup. The team left excellent impressions promising an even better appearance in the Championship.
The teams:
Panathinaikos: Vlachodimos Οd., Coulibaly, Moledo (82’ Evangelou), Koutroumbis, Hult, Zeca, Reis (77′ Lod), Mpoku, Villafañes, Klonaridis (61′ Chatziyiovanis), Berg.
Asteras Tripolis: Donnaroumma, Kotsiras, Gaidoutsik, Selin, Yiannoulis, Tsoukalas, Dimoutsos (73′ Iglesias), Tsilianidis (69′ Bastianos), Kaltsas (55′ Ioannidis), Masa, Manias.
