Panathinaikos left New Philadelphia defeated. The Greens were defeated 2-0 by AEK in the Athens derby for the 6th matchday of the Stoiximan Super League and lost ground in the battle for the title.
The derby had power, passion and a fast pace from its inception. An element indicative of the mood of the two teams for victory. In the 4th minute, Panathinaikos created good conditions for a threat after the cooperation of Ioannidis and Tete, who, however, was stopped before attempting to shoot. On the other hand, AEK tried to become threatening in the 12th minute. Eliasson pressed and stole the ball from Dragowski, but Ingason was on hand to clear the danger.
Against the flow of the game, the hosts found a goal. At 30′ Rota crossed from the right and Pierrot scored with a header making it 1-0. Panathinaikos players tried to react and equalized in the 39th minute with Jedvaj’s header from Tete’s corner. However, Strakosha got down in the right corner and made a difficult save to keep his side’s lead until the end of the half.
Diego Alonso’s men took to the field with great momentum at the start of the second half, creating three threatening situations in the first five minutes. In the 48th minute, Ioannidis with a nice touch found Tete, who dribbled to Vida, but at the last moment he countered by sending the ball to Strakosha. In the 49th minute, the Greens changed the ball well outside the area. Ounahi was in a shooting position, he shot but the ball went over the posts. In the very next minute (50′), the Greens found itself again in a shooting position with Ioannidis, but Rota caught up before the forward of the Shamrock executed.
The coach of Panathinaikos wanted to give his team a boost with his changes, but no matter how hard the Greens tried, they couldn’t score. Instead, AEK managed to score a second goal by a penalty executed by Amrabat in the 93rd minute.
AEK: Strakosha, Rota (89′ Mitoglou), Vida, Callens, Pilios, Szymanski (71′ Ljubicic), Pereyra (71′ Mantalos), Eliasson (89′ Amrabat), Pineda (65′ Jonsson), Koita, Pierrot.
Panathinaikos: Dragowski, Baldock, Mladenovic, Ingason, Jedvaj, Arao (80′ Cerin), Maksimovic (65′ Pellistri), Ounahi (80′ Bakasetas), Djuricic (66′ Mancini), Tete (87′ Jeremejeff), Ioannidis.
