Today’s (14/12 – 19:45, Sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247, Cosmote Sport 3) match between Panathinaikos and Maccabi Haifa, at “Apostolos Nikolaidis”, in the context of the 6th and last game of the 6th group of the Europa League.
The “clover” holds fate in its hands. He is in third place in the group and knows that, with a victory, he will win not only against his tonight’s opponent, but also… the ticket for the next phase of this year’s Europa Conference League!
Even the draw “does” for Panathinaikos. However, on the one hand, the fact that during the days of Ivan Jovanovic, his team has never entered a game with the rationale of not losing – since, after all, many times in a similar case the “wrong” also happens.
On the other hand, the fact that he comes from three consecutive defeats in the tournament and wants to close this particular phase victoriously, leads to the conclusion that every possible effort will be made by the “greens” in order to get the… coveted “three points”.
With the exception of the last-minute problem involving Filip Djuricic, as well as the “known” injured Hordur Magnusson and Eric Palmer-Brown, Ivan Jovanovic has no other problems to deal with.
On the other hand, the Israeli team is anything but the troubled… team of the first games after the war in their country reminds them, finally! Something that was also reflected in their recent European game, against Villarreal.
Given, the fact that she absolutely needs the three points forces her to look for the goal and, fatally, leave some open spaces. She has, of course, experience – and even more than her opponent – to manage it…
Maccabi Haifa will also have the support of around 400 of their friends who made the trip from Israel to Athens, in order to support their favorite team.
On a competitive level, now, the visitors do not count on the help of Sean Goldberg, Dolev Khaziza, Dia Saba and Maor Kandil who were excluded from the squad for the Avenue clash.
The possible lineups:
Panathinaikos (Ivan Jovanovic): Brignoli, Vagiannidis, Senkefeld, Jedvai, Mladenovic, Arao, Vilena, Bernard, Palasios, Ioannidis, Aitor.
Maccabi Haifa (Mesaie Dego): Keough, Sudgren, Cech, Simic, Hadjaj, Kafumana, Mohamed, Kornou, Piero, David, Halaili.
Referee: Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria).
Assistants: Martin Margaritov, Diyan Valkov (Bulgaria).
4th referee: Radoslav Gidzenov (Bulgaria).
VAR: Dragomir Draganov (Bulgaria).
AVAR: Ivailo Stoyanov (Bulgaria).
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
