Panathinaikos lost a chance to leave Toumba‘s stadium with a positive result in the duel against PAOK. Besides the team of Thessaloniki, the Greens had to confront two very important injury problems.  The two captains and most experienced players of the team, Dioudis and Kourbelis weren’t able to offer their services to Lazlo Boloni. Dioudis had to stay away from the starting lineup players list just a few minutes before the kick off.

Nonetheless, Panathinaikos gave a very good impression and lost the match because of some details. The duel didn’t start very well for the Shamrock as the home team opened the score just in the 11th minute by a close head of Swiderski.  The Greens reacted quickly and five minutes later they scored the equalizer with Aitor, who achieved his second consecutive goal, after the one scored last week against PAS Yiannina.

The 1-1 draw took both teams to the locker rooms. The score could be different if the Hungarian referee, only some minutes before the end of the first half, would have whistled a penalty for an irregular tackling done by Yiannoulis over Aitor, into PAOK’s box. In the second period, Panathinaikos, was threatened in very few cases by its rival, mainly in set pieces.

In one of these, in the 65th minute, Ingason sent the ball, by a header, into Xenopoulos’ nets scoring the goal which would give the victory to his team. Few minutes before completing 90 minutes of game, Chatziyiovannis lost a great chance to give Panathinaikos a point, well deserved if one considers the team’s performance. Thus, 2-1 was the final result. Although the Greens ended the current year 2020 with a defeat, the team showed points of a permanent improvement and all its friends can be optimistic toward future duels for the coming year 2021.

PΑΟΚ: Paschalakis, Yannoulis, Michailidis, IngasonVieirinha (83’ Crespo), Douglas (89’ Εsiti), Εl Kaddouri, Μurg (72’ Schwab), Τzolis (89’ Pereira), Α.Zivkovic, Swiderski (83’ Colak)

Panathinaikos: Xenopoulos, Sanchez (88’ Bouzoukis), Schenkeveld, Pouggouras (82’ Αlexandropoulos), Juankar, Μauricio, Velez, Chatziyiovannis, Aitor (82’ Εmmanouilidis), Villafañez (72’ Carlitos), Μacheda (72’ Ιoannidis)