This was the first defeat for Panathinaikos in a home match. The Shamrock played against PAOK, Thessaloniki and lost 1-3 in a duel held at “Apostolos Nicolaides” stadium, breaking the invincible serial the team has built in all eight first games at home for the Super League Interwetten championship.
The Greens deserved a better chance as a very strict penalty, allowed by the VAR and the lack of efficiency in the final efforts, deprived the team of Ivan Jovanovic from remaining invincible in Leoforos and win at least one point.
The game started in a very rapid rhythm and both teams were looking to score. The Greens threatened at first by a header of Palacios in the 5th minute but PAOK opened the score in the first occasion, in the 13th minute, as Zivkovic turned the ball to Akpom who shot and scored the first goal for the team of Thessaloniki.
PAOK tried to score a second goal in the 27th minute with Biseswar, but Velez ousted the ball. Panathinaikos became more aggressive and created some opportunities in order to score in both the 32nd minute by a head of Palacios and the 43rd minute by a double effort of Juankar from the side.
The second half begun with two good moments for each team. In the 53rd minute Sarlija had a head and in the 54th minute Murg shot from a big distance which was stopped impressively by Brignoli. The equalizer for Panathinaikos, though, came in the 59th minute with Mauricio, who had just entered the game, got the ball from Carlitos and by an excellent shoot from the box sent the ball into Paschalakis’ goalposts.
Mauricio had a unique opportunity to score one more goal in the 74th minute but his header went out, although he was facing the rival nets. In the 78th and 79th minutes it was PAOK’s turn to be close to score but Brignoli reacted in a splendid way against the efforts of Akpom and Zivkovic respectively.
Finally the most decisive moment of the game was in the 79th minute, as following a corner and a duel between Villafanez and Michaelidis the latter felt into the box. The Spanish referee Del Cero Grande allowed a very strict penalty, after he was informed by the VAR, which was successfully executed by Kurtic who changed the score to 1-2 in the 85th minute.
Panathinaikos continued to strive looking for the equalizer till the last minutes. In the 88th minute Villafanez was very close to score but Paschalakis stopped the effort. In the 89th minute Chatzigiovannis tried to cross but none of his teammates was close to the rival goalposts to score. Finally PAOK took advantage, in the 97th minute, after a foul and scored with Kurtic a third goal, turning the result to 1-3, which was to be the final score.
Panathinaikos: Brignoli, Κotsiras, Velez, Sarlija, Juankar, Ruben Perez, Αlexandropoulos (58’ Μauricio), Vital (58’Chatzigiovannis), Palacios, Carlitos (78’ Μacheda), Ιoannidis (66’ Villafanez).
PAOK: Paschalakis, Τaylor, Varela, Μichailidis, Vieirinha (33’ Rodrigo), Εsiti (86’ Schwab), Κurtic, Biseswar, Ζivkovic, Μurg (70’ Εl Κaddouri), Akpom (86’ Swiderski)