Panathinaikos had the victory in their hands but cannot handle difficult situations

Those of you who read me know that I avoid commenting on arbitration proceedings. I have the logic that no matter what a referee gives, a game is being played and my job is to be there. The referees do their job, the footballers do theirs and we have to do ours.

In today’s game, however, Panathinaikos did everything he needed to overtake Heraklion with a brace from the moment Jovanovic decided to narrowly overtake Vijafanes. He had the win in his hands and didn’t take it because he proved soft in dealing with an unfair numerical disadvantage. Let’s take things from the beginning.

Nioplias with four clear midfielders

Nikos Nioplias opted for a quartet of clean central midfielders with Megiado, Gagegos, Toral and Neira. In fact, they have been a problem for Panathinaikos for a long time.

We’ve seen a game where both teams tried to drive the opponent’s initial development and both defenses suffered from that reality. Panathinaikos was lucky enough to open the shot on goal with an opponent’s own goal. However, his defense could not keep the 1-0 lead.

Brinioli was alone out of phase on the first goal

Panathinaikos complains about the draw. But the truth is that Brinoli didn’t make the slightest move towards the phase to give Karantonis the right to presume he was influenced by his opponent and annul the goal.

The Italian goalkeeper was out of phase and for this reason allowed the referee to award the goal.

Jovanovic broke the pressure by lowering Vijafanes

The game changed from the moment Jovanovic read the problem created by OFI’s pressure in Panathinaikos’ initial development and managed to solve it. He lowered Vigiafanes alongside Peres.

The first pass went to Argentina and Panathinaikos didn’t mind the pressure from their opponents. He had good ball movement, he had cushions, Vital came into play too, leading to impressive climbs from Juankar.

Juankar is influential

The Spaniard played a great game. He’s used to being aggressive on the avenue, but he’s rarely as effective away from home as he is today.

Panathinaikos grabbed the ball after pressure from Vital and Juankar on the left, and the Spaniard put Palacios into the empty goal to make it 2-1. After the second goal everything seemed easy for Jovanovic’s team. The pressure was easy, the ball circulated properly and OFI was defensively attackable. He was reminiscent of the Simos team trying to play football where there were times when their defense couldn’t support them.

Missed chances to 1-3

In the rerun, nothing changed in the image of the game. There were times when the guests were a bit careless in the final sprint.

For example, Palacios could have knocked out Vital on his own, but he was too late, opting for a late promotional pass and a few others that Carlitos didn’t properly support the conditions created.

In the 70th minute Vital didn’t manage to finish the game and in the next phase Veleth sent the ball to the crossbar with a header from a corner kick.

There wasn’t even a foul

Everything seemed to lead Panathinaikos to an important step for the first 4 teams until the dismissal of Vigiafanes. In a phase where the Argentine only ran faster than Tsilianidis.

Not only did Karantonis give a foul out of nowhere, but he also sent Viafanes off the field with yellow and red. So the referee changed the reality of the game. Here we come to the responsibilities of Panathinaikos.

He cannot handle difficult situations

If the refereeing had been correct, this game would have been settled by Panathinaikos and would not have taken this form. But there’s no excuse for a one-player down team not being able to defend safely for 15 minutes.

It’s not possible to turn a game that easily because you’re left with ten players. A large team must also be able to deal with difficulties. Jovanovic’s Panathinaikos again proved to be very soft.

He lost 40% of games

You must not be the coach of Panathinaikos and have lost in 40% of the games you have given in the championship. It is not possible to stay with ten players, be held low by the opponent and not pass a third stopper in time to hold the score. It’s not possible that after so long, after so many cuffs, you haven’t managed to build the mentality of your team. There is a huge lack of trust.

The number of games he has lost is unbelievably large. Vigiafanes was sent off hard, but the coach and players were not allowed to let the game turn them around.

Panathinaikos has seven points in nine away games. He actually only has four points in eight away games, as one of the two wins is on neutral ground. Panathinaikos is in 11th place in the special ranking for away games and is now even threatened with six eliminations.

The coach also bears a great deal of responsibility for this sad reality.

* Due to the grief over the murder of 19-year-old Alkis, the photos are black and white.