The two-time Greek Cup winner Panionios may have been struggling for the last four years in the minor divisions, suffocated by huge financial problems, but this year when he returned to SL2, he left behind his old sins and has hopes for a quick return to the big division.
A Panionian who enchanted the crowds in the 70’s and who today has to remember and celebrate one of the biggest victories in his history and even at the European level. It was like today 53 years ago, on October 6, 1971, when the “historian” knocked out the great Atlético Madrid for the UEFA Cup at the “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium, shocking Europe in one of the biggest surprises of that era.
In the 1969-70 season, the “Rojiblancos” won the Spanish championship and in those years had a team that starred in Spanish football. The following season they missed out on the title by one point to Valencia as they finished just one point behind champions Valencia and Barcelona while also reaching the semi-finals of the Champions Cup (eliminated by Ajax, who played Panathinaikos at Wembley in the final ). Atlético had a multitude of stars at that time, such as Aragonies, Irureta, Zarate, Cageja, Adelardo and others, forming a powerful ensemble.
In the 1971-72 season, in the first round of the UEFA Cup, Atlético Madrid were drawn with Panionios and the first game was played at the “Viente Calderón”, in a hot atmosphere of 70,000 fans. Panionios found itself losing 2-0 (47′ Besera, 64′ Iroureta), but in the 80′ Lagos scored the precious goal, reducing to 2-1 and giving some hope for a miracle in the rematch.
On the evening of October 6, 1971, in front of 20,000 fans at the “G. Karaiskakis”, the Panionios of the late Joe Mallet made history, as he threw the behemoth on the canvas. He won 1-0 with a penalty by Thanasis Intzoglou in the 53′ and thanks to the away goal he got an incredible qualification, taking Nea Smyrni – and not only – to the streets.
Before the match, one of the big stars of the team, Giorgos Dedes, who in the previous season won the “bronze shoe” as the third scorer of the season in the European championships, was honored. Present on the official platform, as was natural, were the representatives of the junta of colonels, since the dictatorship overshadowed everything in the country. Among them the wife of the dictator George Papadopoulos, Despoina, the Minister of Sports and absolute boss of Greek sports during the dark period Konstantinos Aslanidis, as well as the Deputy Minister of Sports
George Vladimiros. Also present were the then president of EPO Giorgos Dedes, the president of EPSA Kostas Trivellas and the mayor of Nea Smyrna (appointed by the junta) Athanasios Papathanasiou.
Panionios entered the game with a different air and managed to take the lead in the 53′ when Moraiteli’s cross found the ball in the hand of Kike and the Romanian referee Alexander Pirvou awarded the penalty, which was duly executed by T. Intzoglou amid the delirium of the fans. . In the 78th minute against the surprised Atlético, the “blue and red” scored another goal with Dede, but this was disallowed for offside by Lagos at the beginning of the phase. In the 87th minute, Lagos was sent off for a hard tackle on Irouretas, but Panionios held on until the end and celebrated their epic qualification to the next stage, where they were eliminated by Ferentsvaros.
“The Spaniards, despite being a technical team, had played us very hard in the first match and pissed us off. I remember everyone in the team saying before the game that we were going to die on the pitch to beat them. That day, however, we wrote history” stated a few years later the leader of that team, Stathis Haytas, in an interview with the newspaper “Panionios Kosmos”. PANIONIOS (Joe Mallet): Filis, Christodoulou, Papasikas, Kyriazis, Theofilopoulos, Haitas, Moraitelis, Th. Intzoglou, Dedes (77′ Chiotis), Lagos, Mavros ATLETIKO M. (Marcel Domingo): Rodri, Melo, Kageha (37′ Quique), Adelardo, Ovejero, Iglesias, Salcedo, Aragones, Zarate (46′ Orothko)
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