Botev Plovdiv-Panathinaikos: In Plovdiv to… finish the job “clover”

Finish the job and leave Plovdiv with a qualifying ticket for his third qualifying round Europa League Panathinaikos wants it!

The “greens” face tonight (21:00, Cosmote Sport 1, sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247) in “Hristo Botev” Botev Plovdiv in the second leg of OAKA’s 2-1, being all set for the result which will send them even closer to achieving their first objective of the season which is none other than participating in the League Phase of UEFA Europa League.

Diego Alonso’s team, in the first match, showed very positive signs in his game for 70 minutes in the OAKA match, with Geremegev finds the net in the 8th minute and Bakasheta to score the second goal in the 44th minute with a penalty. However, the bad face from the whole of the Uruguayan coach in the last 20 minutes of the match was the one that rang “bells” and left the case for qualification open.

The 49-year-old technician beyond his absence Ioannidiswho has been left out of the roster due to shoulder injuries and was not declared on the roster, will also be unavailable for Tony Villena and Bart Schenkefeld. The two Dutchmen did not perform well in the first match against Botev, however their absence from the team is a result of gastroenteritis which kept them out of training for two days.

Contrary to 23 football players who traveled to Bulgaria, included the club’s latest transfer signing, the Brazilian winger, Tete. The 24-year-old footballer came to Greece ready for Panathinaikos, as he showed in the training sessions, and it is possible that he will play in tonight’s match.

We remind you that the following footballers were included in the Panathinaikos team: Lodgin, Dragovski, Lillo, Vaiannidis, Ingason, Jedvai, Mladenovic, Kotsira, Baldok, Katri, Zeka, Tete, Bacacetta, Cerin, Mancini, Limnios, Maksimovic, Bregou, Juricic, Arao, Verbic, Sporar and Geremegev

On the other side, the home team Botev they give the match of their… story. The Bulgarians do not have the quality that will worry Panathinaikos, but at any moment they can create a problem for any defense.

This will be the sixth match Botev will play this year. In particular, the Philippoulos club played two matches against Maribor in order to be on the road of Panathinaikos and managed to shock the Slovenian club, eliminating it with a win and a draw. This was followed by the championship match against Botef Vratsa from their home base, which they won with a score 3-1while after the OAKA match, came the episodic draw with Lokomotiv Plovdiv for the 2nd matchday of the championship (2-2).

In fact, the press conference of the specific match lit… fires ahead of tonight’s match, since a small episode with the girlfriend of a Botev player, which took place shortly after the OAKA match, was revealed by Dushan Kerkez and brought trepidations and threats of withdrawal.

In the purely competitive part, the Bosnian coach of Botev does not face competitive problems and will line up the best possible eleven in order to perform the second… miracle.

We remind you that the team that qualifies from this pair will face off in the third qualifying round with one of Ajax or Vojvodina.

Possible lineups for the match:

Botev Plovdiv (Dusan Kerkez): Igonen – Mlinkov, Tam, Conte, Balogiannis – Perera, Ukaki, Popov – Akere, Nwatsoukvu, Maras

Panathinaikos (Tiego Alonso): Dragovski – Vagiannidis, Ingason, Jedvaj, Mladenovic – Arau, Maksimovic, Bakasetas – Mancini, Tete, Sporar

Referee: Daniel Slager

Assistants: Kempter, Vaschitsky

4th referee: Florian Badstiber