Last Sunday (November 19th) Serbia celebrated its qualification for the European Championship finals for the first time in 24 years. A day later, the ticket was validated by Slovenia – after the same period of absence. Panathinaikos boasted – and rightly so – that they have five caps in these two national teams.

They all grew up expecting such an award. All of them, now exclusively football players, wanted her more than anything. And they didn’t hide it. Benjamin Verbić, for example, tried to speak on Slovenian television after the end of the game against Kazakhstan, which sealed Slovenia’s qualification with an own goal, leaned forward and could not utter a single word because of emotion and pressure.

All five of them enjoyed it with all their hearts. They spent, they celebrated. And they did it very well. The success connected at least two football generations.

How easy are they to recharge in just a few 24 hours? Leave the ceremonial clothing, forget the triumph and return to their collective, “warlike” everyday life?

Four of the five Panathinaikos internationals were on the Vikelidis pitch during Sunday’s game against Aris. The trio – Mladenovic, Cerin, Verbic – started, the fourth – Juricic – was the first to come off the bench, while the Stoiximan Super League leaders had another goal to their name.

Four out of twelve. Ratio large. When – as we have learned to say – the mindset of one in eleven thirds has remained somewhere else (and absolutely normal and human), when his organism, his “being”, is called upon to cope and… straighten out Something that he has never lived before is logical and next, until he realizes where he has returned to, where he has turned, he must take his time.

And time in the league, in any league, costs money. How it cost Panathinaikos on Sunday (November 26th). No, that wasn’t the main reason for the defeat against Mars.

However, there was another one – whether big or small, the assessment is subjective, but definitely indicative of the overall approach to the game – a link in the chain of (many) missteps that got lost in the Greens’ image.

It took concentration. Group and individual, in the defense or attack phase, not present. It cost mistakes. Individual amateurs, not to mention repeat and group amateurs.

Administrative costs. From the formation of the eleven to the delay in their differentiation in the second half.

And in the end it cost the result. What Aris couldn’t do, Panathinaikos offered. The ball was “sold” three times, the yellows scored two goals, while the greens were inadequate in their own finishing and – again this year – anemic, short-circuited in their reaction when the game went wrong and even helped in the course of time the opponent to look better and get better on the pitch.

Coincidence repeated

However, the loudest of all is not yesterday. It is not something autonomous with a specific explanation, e.g. The national players raved about their success, and the damage was not done by mere imagination.

So a line would be drawn immediately, everything that happened would be erased, knowing the cause and the certainty that it would not happen again, and everyone would move on.

So the most exciting thing is that yesterday was a continuation of the previous one. As if the interruption not only brought national honors and jubilation, but also led to a degenerated collective continuity, such as this time in Thessaloniki also accompanied by a (negative) result.

In Kifissia, Panathinaikos pushed through in the last game before the break with a goal from close range, without really threatening until then, but rather being threatened. Yes, – the counter argument – AEK stumbled there, but 0-3 was more suitable for this particular game than 1-1. In Panathinaikos, no.

Previously, in Lamia, the local team hit the limits of the ‘trefoil’, which, apart from the reaction in the last quarter of the game – when they were unfairly left with 10 players on the pitch – was not fully enforced at any other time.

This was preceded by the beating in Brittany and the defeat against Rennes, with two thirds of those ninety minutes being played with one more player. It is understood that the level is higher, but on the one hand the French team had only beaten Panathinaikos (bis) in the period between the two holidays, on the other hand even if the level rises within the limits, the Greens again, for various reasons, remain stuck .

More telling is the fall of the Union on the Avenue and the inability to respond and return. With PAOK, the best half of the year went wrong for Panathinaikos, the game was saved by the extreme equalizer in the final phase of the game.

In the crazy 50 minutes of the derby with Olympiakos, the first half save was not accompanied by the appropriate efficiency – and it was not, it is not the first time – that would have allowed the game to be secured comfortably, which in turn was the case with The equalizer in the first phase cost the Red and Whites the game at the start of the second half.

Two non-derbies (Kifissia, Lamia) and four other derbies. Six games in total. In other words, half of what Panathinaikos has given so far in the championship. 50% An unacceptable size range for a team fighting for the title, for a team whose main goal is to return to the top.

More specifically, this magnitude cannot be silenced or surpassed after last night. Well, in derbies anything is possible (even if the Greens have not won any of their last seven games), while in the rest of Vikelidis’ precedents the damage depends on the result – this refracting prism, this distorting lens of the post – holiday visa anyway – It did not happen.

However, repetition no longer gives randomness to chance. It seems increasingly clear that this is not the case. And although the pattern cannot (of course) be described as problematic – especially based on comparisons with the competition – as something like that would do a gross injustice to Panathinaikos’ obvious improvement and progress as long as there are ties similar to last night’s If added to the corresponding chain, it will press harder and more damagingly.

And as long as this chain doesn’t break, the risk of breakage increases with the additional weight.