Greens see off 10-man Lamia
 

SUPER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 14

Panathinaikos climbed to fifth in the Super League table on Saturday night thanks to a comfortable 2-0 win over Lamia at the OAKA in Athens.

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The Greens, who are now unbeaten in their last six games, took a 44th-minute lead when Tasos Chatzigiovanis tucked away his second spot-kick in as many matches, and Juan Jose Perea added a second with eight minutes left to seal the three points.

The outcome is that Giorgos Donis’ PAO side moved up to fifth in the standings - their highest position this season - after recording 20 points from 14 matches, while Lamia are eighth with 17 points.

THE MATCH

After going winless in eight matches, Lamia have flipped the script in the last month and a half. Akis Mantzios has done tremendous work to turn the club’s season around and the central Greece side have won four of their last five matches, including a surprise 2-1 win over high-flying OFI Crete last weekend.

They knew they would have their work cut out for them with the trip to Panathinaikos, but the Greens’ inconsistent form gave them some cause for hope.

Giorgos Donis’ team, who began the day just two points outside the top six, clearly fancy their chances of clinching a spot in the championship play-offs, and they began well enough against their opponents from Fthiotida.

But although the Greens controlled most of the possession and were causing Lamia plenty of problems, the hosts’ final ball continuously let them down in a match riddled with mistakes from both sets of players.

When Lamia finally did manage to fashion themselves a chance at the other end, however, they came closest to scoring after 31 minutes. Brazilian forward Rogerio Thuram released Lazar Romanic, who squared perfectly for the on-rushing Andreas Vasilogiannis. But before Vasilogiannis could pull the trigger, Emannuel Insua rescued the Greens with a superb last-ditch challenge to put the ball out for a corner.

The pendulum swung back in favor of the Greens in the latter stages of the half and they were handed the chance to move in front a minute before the end of normal time when they were awarded a penalty after Chatzigiovanos was fouled by Lamia keeper Kostas Theodoropoulos.

Chatzigiovanis himself stepped up to take the spot-kick and slotted the ball into the top left corner of Theodoropoulos’ net.

With a one-goal lead Panathinaikos were able to relax a little in the second half, and they were boosted even further on the hour mark when Lamia were reduced to 10 players when Danny Bejaranao received a second yellow card.

Panathinaikos extended their lead when Juan Jose Perea skipped past Vassilis Pliatsikas before netting with a cool finish past Theodoropoulos with eight minutes left, and it would have been 3-0 had Dimitris Kourbelis not been denied by the woodwork with his header three minutes from full-time.

STARTING LINEUPS

Panathinaikos: 1 Dioudis (Gk), 3 Insua, 4 Kolovetsios, 9 Macheda, 10 Zahid, 11 Chatzigiovanis, 16 Apostolakis, 18 Bouzoukis, 21 Kourbelis, 30 Nunes, 44 Pougouras

Lamia: 30 Theodoropoulos (Gk), 27 Scarduelli, 4 Adejo, 8 Pliatsikas, 23 Skondras, 18 Romanic, 16 Bejarano, 21 Dimoutsos, 7 Vassilogiannis, 11 Karamanos, 9 Thuram Rogerio

HIGHLIGHTS

by Graham Wood

Image Source: sport-fm.gr

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