Being in full sail, already from the championship, Panathinaikos didn´t stop in Agrinio. Although the starting lineup team was full of youngsters, as the coach decided to give a moment of repose to several players that had work a lot till now, the “Shamrock” kept many from the elements which mark its game this season. With patience and methodology Panathinaikos won thanks to a splendid goal after a nice combination of three players and the excellent finishing of Macheda.
At the first half, Panaitolikos had a good passing game, finding ways to threat Kotsaris’ goalposts, but was unable to win the “Green” goalie. The big chance came for Panathinaikos in the 20th minute, although Staikos lost a penalty (won by Vergos) throwing away the opportunity to score for the “Greens”. Actually this first period was not one among their very best for the season, as patience, good passing game, correct movements and cohesion were missing.
As time was passing, this extremely new team was finding its steps correctly acting as the team with which Giorgos Donis works daily at “G. Kalafatis” training center. The entrance of Donis and Macheda into the pitch helped Panathinaikos a lot to prevail in the duel. Finally, in the 84th minute Staikos found Apostolakis at his right side, the latter crossed the ball to the first post, where Macheda received it and by a nice shoot in the air he sent the ball straight to his opponent’s nets.
Panathinaikos lined up with 11 Greek players and finished the game with six players that came from its Academy. It is important to note that in this game Kostas Apostolakis, Vangelis Theocharis and Nondas Pantelakis did their debut.
Panaitolikos: Giannacopoulos, Mana, Diaz, Paulo Marcos, Lucero, Rocha (80′ Tsigaras), Malis, Liavas (65′ Belevonis), Argus, Kamara, Willian (72′ Morar).
Panathinaikos: Kotsaris, Pougouras, Pantelakis, Economou, Staikos, Tzandaris, Theocharis, Chatzitheodoridis (65′ Donis), Apostolakis, Kambetsisς (68′ Macheda), Vergos (74′ Emmanouilidis).
