Mircea Lucescu: “Panathinaikos was very lucky – PAOK could have finished the match 4 or 5 times”

Statements to Media of Ukraine regarding the exclusion of PAOK, but also the qualification of Panathinaikos to the final of the Greek Cup, was made by Mircea Lucescu.

The great Romanian coach and father of the coach of the “two-headed team of the north”, expressed the opinion that PAOK he could have qualifiedas he had several opportunities, while he characterized Panathinaikos “lucky”even making a comment about the way in which the qualification was celebrated by the “clover” fans.

Finally, Mircea Lucescu, did not hesitate to parallel the specific match with a similar case, during the period when he was coaching the Shakhtar Donetsk.

Analytically:

“Such scenarios happen in football, not that often, but they do happen. PAOK could have finished the match and qualification at least four or five times. Panathinaikos was very lucky in the match and its fans must feel that luck was on their side. They were as happy as if they had won the championship based on their reactions after the match.”.

Following his statements, he argued that: “There have been many similar situations in my career. I remember the Ukrainian Cup final against Dynamo Kyiv when I was coaching Shakhtar. We were 3-1 up on penalties and everyone believed that everything was decided in our favor and that we would soon have the trophy in our hands. But then three of our players missed penalties (one penalty was missed by Tyson, the other two by Rakitski and Gladki) and we lost. It’s not easy at all to lose like that.”