During the whole season the European football community started to get used to live with the VAR, though some pathogeny still remains. In Greece the tendency of the referees is to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel! Such an example was experienced in Heraklion during the match against OFI for the play offs.

In the 36th minute the referee has not observed the rough up in a … Greco-Roman wrestling style of Vaz against Kourbelis, which would lead to a second yellow card and finally to the expulsion of the Cretan player. In the 61st minute Macheda scored but was -correctly- whistled in an offside position. In the 85th minute Kampetsis also scored, the referee allowed the goal, the assistant referee went for the kick off, but the VAR …touched Perrea’s hand before the ball reached Kampetsis. The difference is that in that precise move Giannoulis pulled Perea and changed the balance of his body. A big discussion is arising since then…

Two goals were disallowed and finally … the result was zero for Panathinaikos. The final score 0-0 seems unjust for the “Greens” who, besides the two goals, had also some chances with Kourbelis in the 22nd minute, who failed after shooting in the box unmarked, with Chatziyiovannis in the 33rd minute who couldn’t push the ball to the net and with Macheda in the 58th minute when after a head the ball reached the goalpost.

OFI pressed during the first 20 minutes and had more final tries but threatened less Panathinaikos’ goalposts, who smiles at the end for the gained point.

The benefit for Panathinaikos was the participation of many players from its Academy, such as Theocharis, a starting lineup player in the right side of the defense who did a positive appearance, Serpezis who debuted in the championship and Alexandropoulos who played again after a long time.

OFI: Whalley, Brown, Koutroumpis, Giannoulis, Korovesis (69’ Marinakis), Mellado, Neyra, Nabi (68’ Staikos), Vaz (92’ Deliyiannides), Semedo (43’ Manos), Figueredo.

Panathinaikos: Dioudis, Theocharis (78’ Perea), Chatzitheodoridis, Schenkeveld, Kolovetsios, Kourbelis, Ayoub (82’ Alexandropoulos), Kolovos (63’ Anuar), Chatzigiovanis, Bouzoukis (82’ Serpezis), Macheda (82’ Kampetsis).