One of the most famous songs by the great Frank Sinatra that has gone down in history is… “My Way”. Which means “my way” in Greek.

This phrase best describes Panathinaikos’ performance and the way the trefoil wins, loses or advances in the games they have played in this year’s Champions League qualifiers.

Always his way. The way Ivan Jovanovic wants his team to play against any opponent. It’s either called Dnipro, Marseille or Braga. Which is normal after two years with the Serbian coach on the bench.

The Portuguese are the best of the three sides Panathinaikos have faced so far. Ivan Jovanovic says it and repeats it before every press conference that he wants to see his team play the way they want it to. High pressure, pressing, good circulation, combination football and possession to find space.

Because of course he recognizes and emphasizes that his team will certainly not be dominant for more than 90 minutes due to the opponent’s playing along and that special caution is required in these moments. And maybe he got along with Braga there too. From the start of the second half to Panathinaikos’ second goal, the Portuguese’s pace and mistakes paid off. As a second goal you eat it from about not even in the press championship.

He doesn’t play anti-football

The trefoil doesn’t come across the field to play counter-attacking football, plays with eleven players behind center and leads the game to hard tackles and hard fouls. After all, the side Ivan Jovanovic fielded on Wednesday didn’t have ‘soldiers’ and extra midfielders like Arao-Cerin, but quality in the center and wings that can score and Panathinaikos tried to follow their game.

He put on a great performance in the first half in which he limited a packed attacking side to a few finals and Brignoli was essentially unneeded in the first 45 minutes, only worrying in the final. Attacking, on the other hand, he created phases, mainly from the right and with the excellent Vaiannidis-Palassios in the first half, and had his moments to open the scoring.

In the second half it was logical that Braga was also on the pitch. Where Panathinaikos should have been more focused, they conceded two goals while Brignoli made another save. And as if all that wasn’t enough, Sporar had a great missed chance to make it 1-1 and maybe that would change the flow of the game.

Game changer and glory days

Jovanovic’s substitutions, one after the other, helped Panathinaikos in the latter part of the game, with Fotis Ioannidis providing the crucial turning point in another game. Eight times the Greek striker got the ball to his feet and eight times his passes landed on target. One of those after a wonderful turn of his own was the pass to Mancini, who finished the stage clean in the 95th minute and the Greens found a goal that would keep them ‘alive’ in the event of qualifying and OAKA to renewed…glory leads days on Tuesday (29.08., 10:00 p.m.).

Mancini, playing for Panathinaikos in the last minute, was also at the top of the trefoil, followed by Vagiannidis and of course the Greens showed in another game that they have a top goalkeeper at home. As important as the Argentinian winger’s goal is, so is the Italian goalkeeper’s save a little earlier that saved the greens from a third goal. Magnuson and Palasios are also positive.

PS Also indicative of the fact that Panathinaikos does not play anti-football, but is like that, is also the fact that in the game against Braga in 90 minutes of play they committed only 11 fouls, while the Portuguese committed 18 fouls, with Palasios agreeing to four of them them. In addition to possession, which was 52-48%, the Klee tried to match the pace of Braga. The Portuguese had 383/461 passes with an 83% success rate, with Panathinaikos just behind with 319/406 passes and a 79% success rate.