OFI – Panaitolikos 2-4: It also went unstoppable through Heraklion

Panaitolikos is in a terrible state, which was also confirmed in Heraklion. Agrinio defeated OFI in Genti Koule 4-2 in game 19 of Super League Interwetten and after the double against AEK and beating Olympiakos in the cup, achieved another great win.

The game had it all. Mendoza opened the scoring in the 8th minute, with Neira responding in the 43rd. Panaitolikos reacted and took the lead with Cornelius in the 45th minute. Karelis made it 3-1 in 53′, Neira reduced in 66′ while also losing a penalty in 81′. Vergos put the icing on the cake with 90+2′.

In the overall standings, OFI stayed at 26 points and ranks 6th with -3 of Asteras. Panaitolikos rose to 18 points but remained in 10th place.

Panaitolikos took an early lead

Wanting to surprise OFI in the first few minutes, Panaitolikos came into play strongly and made his first chance in the 4th minute with Karelis going wide. Four minutes later, Agrinio took a penalty when Morsey was brought down by Marinakis in the box.

Mendoza executed, Waterman parried, with the Argentine taking the rebound and putting the ball in the net in the 8th minute for the third game in a row, having scored against AEK but also against Olympiakos for the league. In the next few minutes, OFI went up and tried to find the balance.

Neira equalized, Cornelius answered immediately

OFI rose and missed opportunities to achieve a tie. Lambrou got close to goal in the 14th minute, but his shot went off the crossbar. In the 22nd minute Lambrou took a corner from the left and Neira took the header with the ball, which went just above the bar from Melissa.

With ball possession and the Cretans superiority, it was equalized in the 43rd minute. Flores in his attempt to slice the ball confused Panetolikos’s defence. Neira took the ball and found himself facing Melissa, defeating him 1-1.

However, Panetolikos reacted quickly and purposefully in the next phase in the 45th minute. After a foul by Barbosa, Cornelius took the lead and sent the ball into the net. After the VAR checked in for more than two minutes, the decision did not change.

Karelis gave a lead of two goals

In the 52nd minute, OFI came close to goal. Durmisai faced Melissa but failed to beat the Panetolikos goalkeeper. However, the guests were able to score a third goal in a counterattack.

In particular, in the 53rd goal, Mendoza fed Karelis, who moved to the back of OFI’s defense and sent the ball into the net with a nice shot. In the next few minutes Panaitolikos tried to brake.

OFI reduced, Neira lost a penalty, Vergos secured the win

While the pace of the game seemed to be slowing down, OFI managed to get back into the game. In the 66th minute, Durmisai passed the ball to Neira, who made the play outside the box, with the ball ending up in the net of Melissa, who had no room to react.

The Cretans upped the tempo in search of a draw. In 69′ Lambrou threatened from afar, while in 70′ Toral headed in from an advantageous position in the box and went wide. In fact, OFI had a great chance to bring the game to a draw. Cornelius ran over Neira in the penalty area and the Argentine took over in the 81st minute, but the ball caught the crossbar.

OFI tried to find a way to equalize, taking risks and even losing good moments to make it 3-3. But he was penalized on a counterattack at 90+4′. The Agriniotes countered, Vergos dribbled at Vergos, passed the ball under Waterman’s feet and made it 4-2, which was the final score of the game.

OFI: Waterman, Marinakis (83′ Staikos), Vouros, Diamantis, Balogiannis, Megiado, De Guzman (46′ Van Dainen), Toral (83′ Nabi), Tsilianidis (46′ Durmisai), Neira, Lambrou.

Panaitolikos: Melissas, Houhoumis, Cornelius, Malis, Louis, Antones, Flores, Morsey (82′ Apostolakis), Mendoza (67′ Duarte), Barbosa (71′ Tsigaras), Karelis (82′ Vergos).

The Interwetten ranking list of the Super League