Back to positive results for Panathinaikos after winning 2-1 the team of Panetolikos in a match held at the Olympic stadium of Athens. The final score does not represent the course of the duel. This was the first time, this year, that the Greens were not stressed to get their three pointer, as they scored twice during the first half and the goal of their visitors came only in the very last minute of the additional time.
Lazlo Boloni’s players were efficient being threatened very few times from their rival. They could have “lock” their three points earlier if the referee, assisted by the VAR, wouldn’t disallow goals scored in three cases.
The Shamrock entered the match aggressively and even though Aitor scored in the 10th minute he was borderline-exposed. Nine minutes later Macheda gave the possibility to the Greens to open the score. The Italian striker, scored his third goal for the season, following an assist from Sanchez. Later on Panathinaikos let some space to Panetolikos, without being threatened though. On the contrary, the Greens were the ones who thanks to their counterattacks appeared dangerous. In one of these counterattacks, in the 43rd minute, following an assist by Zagaritis, Liavas sent involuntarily the ball into its own team’s goalposts, making the score 2-0.
In the second half the Greens scored again, twice, with Aitor and Mauricio, but in both cases referee Diamantopoulos disallowed the goals; the first one because the ball had previously “brushed” the hand of Villafañez, at the beginning of the play and the second because the Spaniard was in an off side position. This way and as the match was in its additional time, the players of Panetolikos found a way to score, some minutes before the end of the match with Mendoza, who executed successfully a penalty ordered by the referee.
It is worthy to note that this was the first time in the season that Lucas Villafañez entered the pitch as a starting lineup player. The Shamrock achieved its third victory for the season and is looking now toward very demanding future assignments, in order to catch up the gap occurred due to the unsuccessful results of the first match days.
Panathinaikos: Dioudis, Sanchez, Schenkeveld, Pougouras, Ζagaritis, Μauricio (83′ Serpezis), Αlexandropoulos, Villafañez (83′ Bouzoukis), Aitor (78′ Μοllo), Carlitos (67′ Αyoub), Μacheda (78′ Κambetsis)
Panetolikos: Κnet, Τzanakakis, Κonstantopoulos, Liavas, Dalcio, Diaz, Tsigaras, Yiacolic (60′ Duarte), Μazourek (60′ Τahar), Αriyibi (70′ Μendosa), Αzanti (46′ Vergos).
