Panathinaikos offered its fans a glimpse of its glorious past in European competitions, snatching a draw at PSV Eindhoven, on an otherwise bad night for Greek football in the Europa League, as PAOK and Asteras Tripolis lost their matches.
Cyprus’ Apollon didn’t fare much better, with a shattering 5-0 loss to Mönchengladbach.
Panathinaikos drew 1-1 in the Netherlands to grab their first point in the group stage this season after three games, through a late equaliser. They even thought they had won the game in injury time when they had a goal disallowed.
PAOK lost 1-0 to a Fiorentina that seemed at times to be a class above its host, especially during the first half.
Fiorentina scored 38 minutes into the game as Peruvian Juan Vargas beat Panayiotis Glykos after getting the rebound from a save by the PAOK keeper to his first shot, for the game’s only goal. Vargas also hit the upright in the second half.
PAOK, who remained on three points from as many games, is also concerned over the injury to defender Yiannis Skondras, who was substituted.
Asteras Tripolis had a disastrous night at White Hart Lane as Tottenham beat the Peloponnesians 5-1 to leap over them on the group table. Asteras remained on four points from three games.
The result appears particularly harsh on Asteras as the Greeks missed a number of chances in the game and only got to score one minute from the end with Jeronimo Barrales after the Harry Kane hat-trick and the Erik Lamela brace had given the Spurs a 5-0 lead.
Barrales’ goal came directly from a free kick that emergency keeper Kane fumbled, having put on the gloves after Hugo Lloris’ red card and the completion of Tottenham’s substitutions.
Yet when the two sides meet again in two weeks’ time in Tripoli the game will likely be very different as Asteras has never lost at home in Europe.
Source: Kathimerini