Panathinaikos’ journey to the stars ends in Braga: up to two line-up changes

Tonight (Wednesday, August 23, 10:00 p.m., COSMOTE SPORT 2 HD – MEGA), Panathinaikos will shake a leaf in front of his mouth (because that’s how the playoff ritual dictates it). And LIVE from the Sportish Match Center) in the “Estadio Municipal de Braga” and in six days in the OAKA (29.8., 10:00 p.m.), 11 years after his last appearance in the playoffs Champions League.

.However, the ‘Greens’, eliminated in the qualifiers against Dnipro and Marseille (also) want to enjoy the ‘nectar’ of being back in the groups of the top club competition for the first time since the 2010/11 season.

Panathinaikos’ voyage to the stars has Braga as its last (away) stop while the ‘Clover’ searches for another breakthrough in a journey that began modestly on July 25 in Kozice and ended with great difficulty, but as far as they go Portugal had a worthy performance.

Against him this time, Panathinaikos won’t have a group of stars that haven’t (yet) become a team like Marseille with a budget of €240m, but a team that has learned to play together in the truest sense of the word over the years.

The presence of the “Greens” in the playoffs of the Champions League has already brought a hefty bonus of 5 million euros, regardless of the course of the matches with Braga, participation in the group stage of the Europa League is already guaranteed (from the first qualification on Dnipro), but the big goal and the overcoming is for Panathinaikos in front of the door.

The ‘Clover’ are looking for another ‘big’ game to secure a result that boosts hopes of qualifying for the ‘golden’ and shiny groups of the Champions League ahead of Tuesday’s (29/8) second leg at OAKA.

The finishing touches to the preparation of the greens came on Tuesday evening (22/8) with on-pitch training for the game, with Ivan Jovanovic now having more starting line-up as he was ‘made’ into the starting XI by the Europe nominated and newly signed Willian Arao, while Bart Senkefeld (replacing Eric Palmer-Brown) was returning from the muscle injury that kept him out of the second leg against Dnipro.

Up to two lineup changes

There are likely to be two changes in the eleven compared to last Tuesday’s (15/8) “Thriller” game against Marseille in Marseille, as Fotis Ioannidis and “Toukou” Palasios claim the places of Andraz Sporar and Benjamin Verbich.

From then on Alberto Brignoli, Giorgos Vagiannidis, Tin Gedvai, Hordur Magnuson, Juancar, Ruben Perez, Tony Villena, Filip Djuricic and Daniel Mancini have the first word for the XI.

The “green” team for the first game against Braga consists of: Brignoli, Lodingin, Xenopoulos, Vaiannidis, Kotsiras, Huancar, Mladenovic, Schenkefeld, Jedvai, Magnuson, Ruben, Arao, Vilena, Cerin, Bernard, Djuricic, Mancini, Palasios, Verbits, Aitor, Sporar and Ioannidis.

Elite Felix Zweier of Germany was named referee of the match by UEFA, joined by his compatriots Stefan Lupp, Robert Kempter and Germany’s Daniel Schlager. Christian Diegert (Germany) will serve as VAR and Benjamin Brandt as AVAR.