Panathinaikos believed they had an easy task against Boracay Banja Luka in their League Phase opener of the Conference League and stepped up as they were held to 1-1, dropping two unlikely points, with Sunday’s derby with Olympiakos on their minds…
Diego Alonso, due to the small capacity of Borats, found the opportunity to rest his key players ahead of Sunday’s derby with Olympiakos. So Unahi, Tete, Ioannidis, Arao, Jedvai, Baldok, stayed on the bench.
The “greens” were not in the mood for adventure, against a weaker opponent under irritating drizzle and came on strong from the start to clean up the victory. Thus, in the 11th minute they opened the scoring with a shot by Bakaseta after an excellent collaboration between Sporar, Djurisic, and Mladenovic and the latter’s assist to the captain of the “clover” for 0-1. In the next minute Bakasetas brought out Sporar four-on-four with Siakovski but the Slovenian could not beat the Borat goalkeeper.
After 15′, Panathinaikos dropped the pace, gave space to the hosts who only threatened with shots from outside the area, but Dragovski was present where needed. In the last quarter, the “greens” again created situations in the opponent’s area, they asked for a penalty in the 43rd minute at the hands of a defender in a period of time in the Bosnian area, but the VAR had a different opinion.
In the second half, the laziness of the “greens” gave rights to Borats, who managed to equalize from a set-piece in the 50th minute. Herrera’s free kick (the “greens” complained about the foul) from the left side, nailed header just before Despotovic’s penalty, post and in for 1-1. The goal gave morale to the hosts, who in the 53rd minute nearly achieved a complete reversal, but Herrera’s fireball was impressively deflected by Dragovski for a corner.
In the 63rd minute, Sporar squandered another huge chance after a Bakaseta-Djuricic partnership and a pass to the unmarked Sporar in the area, who slotted wide from an ideal position. Alonso was forced to throw in the match gradually and his heavy weapons (Tete, Unai, Ioannidis, Arao, Mancini) in order to find a winning goal and together with the rain that got stronger, the “greens” started to put a lot of pressure on the Bosnians. In the 72′ Tete’s strong shot was stopped on the crossbar, in the 74′ Ioannidis and Bakaseta’s shots were stopped in the bodies and in the 85′ Kvirzic saved on Mladenovic’s turn. In the 91st minute, Ioannidis’s header went wide
Azeri referee Yeltsin Masiyev showed yellow cards to Skorup, Herrera, Schenkefeld, Ingason, Kulasin.
BORAC: Siskowski, Vuksevic (67′ Kvirzic), Meyers, Karolina, Herrera, Skorup (67′ Nikolof), Ogrinec, Kulasin, Savic (89′ Cavic), Sretskovic (77′ Hrelia), Despotovic (89′ Marchetic).
Panathenaic: Dragovski, Mladenovic, Senkefeld, Ingason, Kotsiras, Maksimovic (78′ Arao), Cerin (65′ Tete), Bacachetas (78′ Mancini), Djuricic, Pelistri (65′ Unai), Sporar (69′ Ioannidis).
*In the other games of the tournament premiere we had:
Guimaraes – Celie 3-1
Basaksehir – Rapid Vienna 1-2
Dynamo Minsk – Hearts 1-2
Astana – Batska Topola 1-0
Heidenheim – Olympia Lube. 2-1
Legia – Betis 1-0
Molde – Larne 3-0
Noah – Boleslav 2-0
Omonia – Vikingur Reykjavik 4-0
Circle Bruges – St. Gallen 6-2
Shamrock Rovers – APOEL 1-1
Petrokoub – Paphos 1-4
Lugano – Helsinki 3-0
LASK – Djurgarden 2-2
Copenhagen – Jagiellonia 1-1
Chelsea – Ghent 4-2
Fiorentina – New Saints 2-0
#Borats #Panathinaikos #thinking #about.. #Olympiakos #stepped
