A mountain to climb for Panathinaikos in Europe

Panathinaikos will have a mountain to climb to reach the group stages of a European competition if the Greens are given the green light to compete in Europe next season.

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Rewind to 2003, Panathinaikos were sitting in an impressive 22nd spot in the UEFA Coefficient Rankings. The Greens beat the following season’s Champions League winners, Porto, 0-1 in the first leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals away from home and lost the tie in extra time at Leoforos. The year before that, the Greens topped their UEFA Champions League group ahead of the likes of Arsenal, Mallorca, and Schalke and went on to make the quarter-finals of the competition, losing to Barcelona over two legs (Panathinaikos won 1-0 in the first leg at home).

It was a norm for the Greens to be featuring in Europe’s premier footballing competitions back then. Not only featuring, but going deep in the tournaments, often beyond Christmas. Panathinaikos were in 22nd spot in the UEFA Coefficient Rankings on 72.391 points and mixing with the elite, the biggest clubs in the world.

Since these monumental times, 17 years have elapsed, and Panathinaikos have fallen so low that no one would have expected it back then. The Greens now sit in 205th spot on 5.260 points. Naturally, this means the Trifylli have a mountain to climb just to reach the group stages of the UEFA Europa League.

Even though the odds are hugely stacked against the club, Giannis Alafouzos will keep trying to get the UEFA ban overturned in a bid to see the team participate in European matches for the first time in three years. Unfortunately for the club, it was looking good until the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

However, hypothetically should the ban get overturned it is worth looking at the qualifying situation for Panathinaikos. PAOK have been docked points, and should the season resume, the team could well end up in a UEFA Champions League spot, but let’s look at it in the present moment. As it stands, the team would enter the “non-champions” path in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, just as Atromitos and Aris did last summer.

Both clubs progressed to the third qualifying round as they were fairly strong to the rest of the sides. They defeated DAC Dunajska Streda and AEL Limassol, respectively. However, both were underdogs and fell at the first hurdle in the next round of qualifying. This is where stronger opponents enter, and it would be no different for Panathinaikos if they were to get the ban overturned.

Atromitos and Aris fell to Legia Warsaw and Molde, respectively. For context, AEK entered at this stage and progressed but fell to Trabzonspor in the final play-off round. This illustrates just how difficult it would be for the Greens to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League, let alone the Champions League. This used to be a given or the minimum expectation for the stature of a club like Panathinaikos.

Based on the current standings, Panathinaikos would join OFI in the second round of qualifying as a “non-champion” and would already be on the back foot. As previously mentioned, the team has 5.260 points. However, the likes of Atletico Madrid (126.000), FC Basel (54.500), Wolfsburg (36.000), BATE Borisov (24.000), Malmo (22.000), Partizan Belgrade (22.000), Standard Liege (20.500), AC Milan (19.000), Wolverhampton (17.635) and Rangers (16.250) would all join in this round (based on present standings) and would all be possible opponents for Panathinaikos, thus making it a mountain to climb from the beginning.

Undoubtedly, it is a far cry from where the club once was, but beginnings have to be made somewhere, and this would present a young Panathinaikos team with a good opportunity (should the ban be overturned, of course).

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