With an extremely interesting duel, OFI and Panathinaikos complete their obligations in the regular season of the championship!
The two teams face each other tonight on 19:30 (Cosmote Sport 3, bwinSPORT FM, sport-fm.gr) for the 26th matchday in a “final” match, but of a different character for both teams.
On the one hand, OFI wants to return to winning ways, after suffering a 3-1 defeat in Volos the previous matchday and has entered a new era with the hiring of Traianos Dellas for technical leadership. The Greek coach, in the fourth match on the team’s bench, is trying to correct the bad words of the season and wants a victory in order to enter the upcoming playouts with a good mentality.
The Heraklion team is located in 9th place of the scoreboard with 24 points, with the year not having developed in the expected way. In fact, the “three points” are of vital importance for OFI, since they are only six points away from the relegation zone and any loss from now on could be fatal.
In the competitive part, Traianos Dellas is facing several problems, since in addition to Neira and Gayegos, he was also knocked out Jon Toral! The Spanish midfielder felt discomfort during the last training and was left out of the mission, as were Bressan, Giannoulis, Sotiriou, Koutentakis, Kalafatis, Adamakis. On the contrary, Bakic returned and served his punishment.
OFI’s mission in detail: Bowman, Christogeorgos, Larson, Lousao, Marinaki, Vouros, Thorarison, Lampropoulos, Abanda, Riera, Apostolakis, Glazer, Meyado, Bakits, Baku, Iseka, Jimenez, Felipe, Mosquera, Theodosoulakis.
On the other side, Panathinaikos traveled to Heraklion with the goal of victory that will keep them within striking distance of the top! The “clover”, lost two valuable points 23rd and 24th matchday on the Avenue, after being stuck in a tie with Lamia and Kifissia respectively losing ground, however the victory and especially the appearance against the Mars last wednesday, brought smiles again.
THE Fatih Terim he wants 100% from his players and for this reason he will hardly make many changes, since the three points are a one-way street and the match has taken the form of a “final”.
However, the Turkish coach is also facing problems. Apart from the permanently injured, Palmer-Brown and Magnusson, Jedvai, Verbitz and Huancar and the suspended Arao, the mission did not follow in Crete, nor did Bart Schenkefeld. The Dutch central defender in the team’s last training session felt discomfort in his knee and after tests he underwent it was found that he has suffered tendonitis.
On the contrary, Filip Djuricic traveled to Crete with the team after almost a month’s absence and was placed at the disposal of Fatih Terim.
We remind you that in the corresponding match of the first round, Panathinaikos was the one who won comfortably 4-0 at OFI Avenue, thanks to two goals by Ioannidis and one each by Aitor and Palasios, a match which was also Valdas Dabrauskas’ last on the bench of the Cretans.
Possible lineups:
OFI (Traianos Dellas): Bauman – Marinakis, Vouros, Lousao, Thorasison – Glaser, Meyado, Bakics – Baku, Mosquera, Iseka
Panathinaikos (Fatih Terim): Dragovski – Vaiannidis, Akaidin, Hugo, Mladenovic – Perez, Cerin, Bakasetas – Palasios, Bernard, Ioannidis
Referee: Vergetis
Assistants: Fotopoulos, Koula
Fourth: Perrakis
VAR: Papapetrou, Vergetis D.
Source: Sport Fm
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