By one more loss, the third one in three home matches and the fifth in a total of six matches, Panathinaikos has completed its presence in the group stage of Europa League competitions, losing by Celta 0-2 in the last match day.
This victory gave possibility to the Spaniards to qualify to the next stage, thanks to the 1-1 draw in the match between Standard de Liege and Ajax Amsterdam. The Dutch team finished in the first place of the group.
Already from the 4th minute of the duel, the balance to determine the characteristics and the course the match would have were defined. Lautaro Rinaldi missed the opportunity to score the guest team’s goalposts being by a close lunge, though Guidetti took immediately advantage of a right crossing and the inactivity of the midfielders to shoot from very close into Steele’s goalposts. This goal (0-1) put the Spaniards in a “leading” position and the matched rolled mainly under their rhythm.
Celta was prevailing and motivated looking for victorious points and thus controlled the rest of the game. The first period was completed without any threat from the part of Panathinaikos. Celta was rather relaxed being ahead.
In the second period the image of the game remained almost the same. Despite the fact that Panathinaikos substituted some of its players, mainly by using offensive ones, it couldn’t really puzzle Celta’s defense. The Spaniards were obviously able to get much easily into their opponent’s box threating them, although they had reduced their speed. In such an occasion, in the 76th minute, Moledo overthrows Guidetti. The referee awarded a penalty, which was transformed into a goal by Orellana, making a 0-2, which was the final score of the match. Things remained unchanged from then and till the end of the match.
The end of game whistle gave Celta’s players the opportunity to celebrate in the pitch their victory and their qualification to the Europa League round of «32» draw.
Panathinaikos: Steele, Mesto, Moledo, Ivanov, Chouchoumis, Zeca, Lod (82΄ Koutroumbis), MPoku, Wakaso, Villafañes (70’Leto), Rinaldi (60’ Ibarbo).
Celta: Ruben Blanco, Mallo, Cabral, Roncaglia, Yoni, Randogia, Wass (63’ Diaz), Hernandez, Bongonda, Orellana (83’ Sisto), Guidetti (90’ Sergi Gomez).