Asteras deny 10-man Panathinaikos
 

SUPER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 25

Asteras Tripolis grabbed a late equaliser to snatch a 1-1 draw against 10-man Panathinaikos at home in the Super League.

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With five minutes remaining in regulation time, Eneko Jauregi stole in unmarked at the back post, subsequently tucking the ball beyond Sokratis Dioudis to salvage a 1-1 draw for Asteras Tripolis after Ghayas Zahid had received a second yellow card for Panathinaikos midway through the second half.

Federico Macheda had given Panathinaikos the lead from the penalty spot at the start of the second half.

As a result of this draw, Panathinaikos do now trail third-placed AEK by six points, but that deficit will be extended to nine if the Enosi defeat OFI tomorrow in Athens. Asteras occupy seventh position, one point behind OFI. The top six teams qualify for the championship playoffs.

Next week, Panathinaikos will face Volos NFC at home in the concluding round of the regular season, while Asteras take on AE Larissa on the road.

THE MATCH

In what was a tight first half of play, both teams struggled to create a large amount of clear opportunities, however Asteras thought they had taken the lead in the 28th minute.

When clean through, AEK loanee Milos Deletic thumped the ball past Dioudis, but the flag had been raised for offside and the goal was disallowed.

At the other end, Tasos Chatzigiovanis tried his luck from range, testing the palms of Nikos Papadopoulos who managed to make a comfortable stop.

The action immediately increased in the second half.

After the video assistant referee (VAR) technology was used, Panathinaikos received a penalty for a foul against Dominik Nagy, but Macheda’s ensuing spot-kick was saved by Papadopoulos.

However, VAR came to Panathinaikos’ rescue, as it was determined that Papadopoulos had moved off his line too early.

This time, Macheda didn’t make any mistake, thumping his penalty high into the right corner.

Zahid, however, then made Panathinaikos’ task of holding onto the lead a rather difficult one, as the Norwegian midfielder was sent off with a second yellow card.

A task which wasn’t successfully fulfilled.

In the 85th minute, Jauregi beat Dioudis when completely free inside the box to bring Asteras level.

In stoppage time, substitute Juan Jose Perea had a golden opportunity to win it for Panathinaikos, but he contrived to miss the target from a superb position and the Prasini had to be content with a point.

THE TEAMS

Asteras Tripolis: Papadopoulos, Tasoulis (Sito 78’), Pasalidis, Suarez, Kotsiras, Iglesias (Valiente 19’), Munafo, M. Fernandez, Deletic, Xesc (L. Fernandez 61’), Jauregi.

Panathinaikos: Dioudis, Chatzitheodoridis (Alexandropoulos 60’), Poungouras, Nunes, Apostolakis, Tuhami, Kourbelis, Chatzigiovanis (Bouzoukis 63’), Nagy, Zahid, Macheda (Perea 76’).

HIGHLIGHTS

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: to10.gr

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