Adding one more awful appearance in this season’s negative results, Panathinaikos experienced a humiliating defeat from the team of Lamia, as well. The final score 4-1 gives Lamia a big advantage for its qualification to the next stage of the competition, in a match held at the Municipal Stadium of Lamia for the first leg of the third stage of the Cup of Greece.
Few minutes after the kick-off of a game which was not sure if it would ever start, due to very bad weather conditions and the inappropriate status of the pitch, the hosting team scored its first goal just in the 5th minute with Piti. The “Greens” kept their bad custom to let in a goal just in the first counterattack of their opponent. Furthermore the “Shamrock” took initiatives, though the duel in general and from a sporting point of view can’t be analyzed by normal criteria and in a logical way as it was impossible for all 22 players to play football in a proper way. Nevertheless, the pressure towards Melissas’ box brought some chances, especially after a shoot by Lod to the post. The image of the match didn’t predict at all the score by which the first half would finish. Lamia, which seemed to be satisfied with 1-0 in the very beginning, strove and succeeded not only to duplicate the goals by Panteliadis, who scored an unexpected goal in the 42nd minute, but also to suddenly triplicate them before going to the locker rooms by Piti, during the additional time.
Upon the start of the second half Marinos Ouzounidis realized two substitutions, sending Molins and Donis into the pitch. Panathinaikos tried to press the game early in order to enter the duel. Despite all the above one more factor, arbitration, affected its situation. Kourbelis scored by a header in the 50th minute, but the referee disallowed the goal considering it was offside after he got an erroneous indication by the linesman! Further on, several chances raised but only in the 82nd minute, the “Shamrock” had the opportunity to see the ball entering Melissas’ goalposts, after a magnificent lob by Molins. Although the “Greens” were increasing their pressure in order to assure a better score in view of the rematch, a fourth goal was allowed in the 90th minute by Blazic, after a childish error in the green defense. The final score 4-1 gave the team of Lamia not only a big advantage to be qualified, but maybe the most important victory in its history.
Lineups:
Lamia: Melissas, Panteliadis, Anastasopoulos (70′ Blazic), Koukolis, Asigba, Omo, Karayiannis (56′ Bouloulis), Piti, Vouho (87′ Patsarouhas), Vassilantonopoulos, Tsoukalos.
Panathinaikos: Dioudis, Koulibaly, Insua, Kolovetsios, Avlonitis (46′ Donis), Kourbelis, Tzandaris, Lod, Villafañez, Altman (69′ Mounier), Pispas (46′ Molins).
