Playing better than his rival during the whole match, Panathinaikos prevailed 1-0 over the team of Panionios and improved its position in the special scoreboard, in the game held at “Ap. Nicolaidis” stadium for the fifth match day of the Super League’s playoffs.
Panathinaikos entered the game with strength, pressing high and looking forward to open the score as early as possible. The chances were created mainly from the left side by Hult and Lod who were moving and converging into the free spaces towards the center. The Finn was the one to “alert” in the 8th minute by a shoot inside the box, stopped by Yianniotis. Lod, though, was the player who won Panionios’ goalie nine minutes later by an excellent diagonal shoot, after receiving Leto’s assist. Panathinaikos was able to manage its leadership afterwards starting by a good ball possession and prevailing in the pitch sharing the attacks on both sides by Hult and Marinakis. Panionios’ players were unable to threaten as even in the very few chances they came close to the “green” box, the interventions of both Moledo and Koutroumbis were to the point!
The second period didn’t change the match in its essence. The gradual decrease of the stamina and the reduced strength of both teams players to run, reduced the chances towards both goalposts accordingly. Nevertheless, Panathinaikos had again clear opportunities, firstly by Klonaridis and then by Chatziyiovannis, whose high-slung header was hardly stopped by Yianniotis, in the 57th minute. Panionios seemed to be threatening in the 64th minute when Hult “catch” Lambrou after a parallel shoot by Ben and thus the last half hour of the game crawled practically without any special … emotions, as Vlachos couldn’t take advantage of Risvanis’ passing, in the 81st minute.
In such a way Panathinaikos obtained the three victorious points and completed its home commitments for the season by a win giving the possibility to fly to Toumba, Thessaloniki, on Wednesday in order to strive for the best possible position toward its summer European assignments.
The lineup:
Panathinaikos:Vlachodimos Od., Marinakis, Koutroumbis, Moledo, Hult Kourbelis, Zeca, Chatziyiovanis (67’ Villafañes), Lod, Klonaridis (74’ Reis), Leto (85’ Pispas).
Panionios:Yianniotis, Vlachos, Risvanis, Economou, Tasoulis (79’ Antoniadis), Siopis, Korbos, Masoud, Ben, Masouras (71’ Savidis), Yecil (46’ Lambrou).
