Rui Vitoria’s chapter at Panathinaikos opened with a victory. In the Portuguese coach’s debut on the team’s bench, the Greens completely dominated Volos at the Panthessaliko Stadium. In fact, although they prevailed with the “poor” 1-0, they performed a full performance, having – apart from the winning goal scored by Djuricic – two posts, a missed penalty and countless classic opportunities.

The Greens touched the goal early in the match. Just in the 4th minute, Djuricic opened up nicely on the right for Tete, who placed a wonderful shot but the ball did him no favors stopping at the right post.

Panathinaikos took complete control of the game, pressed and found the goal they were looking for before the first quarter of the match was completed. In the 14th minute, Mladenovic opened wonderfully with a deep pass for Djuricic, who stepped into the area and with an amazing right-footed volley sent the ball into the net for 0-1, scoring for the fifth time of the season and fourth in this year’s Stoiximan Super League.

In the 21st minute, Panathinaikos had a second goal with Tete, who pretended well and shot but the ball went against a defender and hit the crossbar. Volos became threatening in the 24th minute with Kozsta. However, Dragowski made a great move to maintain the Greens’ lead.

Just before the end of the half, Panathinaikos created conditions for a second goal after a clever pass from Djuricic to Tete, who went alone against Kovacs. Correa, wanting to prevent the Greens’ promising attack, brought down Tete and was rightly sent off with a straight red card.

Panathinaikos maintained absolute control in the second half as well, creating threatening situations in the frames of Volos. In the 58th minute, after a foul by Bakasetas on the second post, Ingason made the turn in the small area, where Ioannidis made the projection without the ball ending up in the net. Also in the 62′, Ounahi caught a nice deflected shot but Kovacs made an impressive save.

Volos threatened – for the first and last time in the second half – in the 68th minute with Kozsta’s header that went just wide, while the Greens responded with opportunities from Tete in the 76th minute, Bakasetas in the 80th minute, and Cerin in the 83rd minute. Even bigger was the missed opportunity in the 85th minute for the Greens. Arao took the spin, Ferrari waved away and the referee correctly awarded a penalty. Ioannidis executed but Kovacs fell correctly and blocked.

The crescendo of opportunities for Panathinaikos continued as in the 87′ Ioannidis, in the 88′ Pellistri and in the 94′ Cerin touched the goal. 0-2 was not achieved but the Greens safely secured the precious three points.

Volos: Kovacs, Sundgren (46′ Mygas), Ferrari (90+2′ Smeulers), Miletic, Kalogeropoulos (20′ Correa), Glavcic, Bernadou (46′ Aslanidis), Comba (90+2′ Tachatos), Villafanez, Altman , Kozsta.

Panathinaikos: Dragowski, Vagiannidis, Mladenovic, Ingason, Jedvaj, Arao, Ounahi (71′ Cerin), Bakasetas, Tete, Djuricic (71′ Pellistri), Ioannidis.