THE Panathinaikos prevailed upon me 1-0 of PAOKin Toumba, in the first match between them for the semi-final stage of Greek Cup Betsson and took it upper hand for the qualification to the grand final of the event.
The “clover” was overall superiorachieved one beautiful goal with Sporar in 53′while the “two-headed man of the North” saw his shot Meite in the third minute of stoppage time to stop at beam after a double counter.
Earlier, they were sent off with a straight red card both o Tyson as well as Bakasetasin the 79′for a skirmish.
THE rematch of the two teams will be held the following day Wednesday (21/02) in the “Apostolos Nikolaidis” at 19:00.
In the minds of the coaches:
THE PAOK lined up in formation 4-2-3-1, with Kotarski in goal and Otto, Keziora, Michaelidis and Soares four at the back. Schwab and Tsigaras were the two central midfielders, with Zivkovic-Despodov playing on the “wings”, Antonio in a free role and the promoted Tomas.
THE Panathinaikos on the other hand “went down” with eight changes, system 4-3-3 and Dragovski under the goalposts. Kotsira, Jedvai, Arao and Mladenovic four in defense. Ruben, Cerin and Bakasetas were the three midfielders on the axis, with Palacios-Bernard on the wings and Sporar at the top of the attack.
The match:
PAOK came in with a desire to press high and, unable to create a game from behind, try to “hit” with some quick transition, in the first minutes. However, Panathinaikos managed to maintain possession with good and cool ball circulation and at the same time to reach the opponent’s territory easily.
With Bernard in the lead and Mladenovic in a… secondary role, the “greens” had their first good moment in 8′. As the fine partnership between the two put Bernard in a position to shoot, inside the area, but the Brazilian delayed to shoot and the opportunity was missed…
The “double-headed of the North” took some measures on the field after the quarter and recorded the first phase in the 13′ when from the individual energy of Živković – who targeted took many attacksfacing Mladenovic – from the right and the cross he attempted, Despodov sent the ball out with projection at the second post.
Having gradually managed to find his footing, in fact, he was the one who created the next important chance of the match, in the 21st minute, in a quickly executed attack. With Soares turning from the left in the small area but Dragovski impressively blocking Thomas’ shot with his foot!
After half an hour the situation was balanced, with Panathinaikos having a three-minute… fire. First, with a promising phase that wasted Palacios, as despite the excellent pass in the area by Bernard, the Argentinian winger made a bad control and missed the opportunity to go four-four with Kotarski, in the 32nd minute. While in the 35th minute Bernard attacked from the left, entered the area and shot but the ball found Kenziora and ended up a corner.
The Shamrocks built momentum from that point on, continued to be in control and threatened with a second goal on the hour mark. As Sporar went through... between two defenders he brought the ball in front of him, shot but Kotarski made an impressive save!
It was the Slovenian Panathinaikos striker who missed another chance in the 66th minute, his snap shot forcing Kotarski to make a difficult save.
Razvan Lucescu made a triple change to correct his team's miscues, with Samata, who had come on for Tomas, heading the ball over his shoulder for Dragovski to make a stunning save. in the 75th minute.
Tyson and Bakashetta clash saw both sent off with straight red cards four minutes later, despite the latter not initially reacting, followed by a fresh set of changes from Lucescu and Fatih Terim's treble.
Tension and nerves reigned from that point until the final whistle, with Mancini counter-attacking from the left, getting inside, shooting into the tight opposite corner, only to be blocked by Kotarski.
With Meite's long shot in the third minute of extra time stopping at left beam and while it has preceded double against bodies of Panathinaikos playersbefore Dragovski blocked a double attempt and 0-1 remained until the end.
MVP: It was too late to... take the lead o Andraz Sporar but put his stamp as he managed to score the only and at the same time winning goal for his team. At the same time, the Slovenian striker had one or two more good moments to score, with the opposing defense getting the better of him in the second half, winning the title from Bernard Duarte and Bartlomiej Dragovski!
the "whistle": With "issues" Lindhout's arbitrationas the Dutchman was flexible in the disciplinary control, giving cards to Tsingaras, Tomas and Kotsira at the start, but also the red to Thomas who, while a change had been made, got up from the bench and pulled Mladenovic! In general, he tried to keep control of the game, but he lost many phases mainly with fouls that he did not count.
The compositions of the two teams:
PAOK (Razvan Lucescu) : Kotarski, Otto, Kenziora, Michaelidis, Soares, Schwab (76' Ozdoev), Tsigaras (63' Meite), Zivkovic, Antonio (63' Murg), Despodov (63' Tyson), Thomas (71' Samata).
They stayed on the bench: Z. Zivkovits, Baba, Koulierakis, Tzimas.
Panathinaikos (Fatih Terim): Dragovski, Kotsiras, Jedvai, Arao, Mladenovic (86' Huancar), Ruben, Cerin (86' Senkefeld), Bakasetas, Palacios (69' Mancini), Sporar (74' Zeka), Bernard (86' Vaiannidis).
They stayed on the bench: Lodgin, Fikai, Geremegev, Kyriopoulos.
Referee: Allard Lindhout (Netherlands).
Assistants: Honig Rogier (Netherlands), Inia Patrick (Netherlands).
4th referee: Yannis Papadopoulos (Macedonia).
VAR: Erwin Blank (Netherlands).
AVAR: Vassilis Nikolakakis (Lassithiou).
See here the description of the match from the Match Centre
Source: Sport Fm
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