The Greens have a mountain to climb after a disappointing defeat at the hands of Rangers, which has put their Champions League hopes in massive jeopardy.
Panathinaikos was left to rue missed chances and their own mistakes as they fell 2-0 away to the Scottish giants at Ibrox Stadium on Wednesday morning (AEST) in the opening leg of their second qualifying round tie.
The “Trifylli” looked bright in the first half with the game fairly in the balance, though everything changed with Findlay Curtis’ strike in the 52nd minute.
The 18-year-old winger released a powerful effort from distance that took a crucial deflection on its way into the bottom right corner, and the goal signalled the beginning of Panathinaikos’ woes.
A squandered chance from Filip Djuricic roughly five minutes later was almost immediately followed by right back Georgios Vagiannidis’ second yellow card, putting the Greens down to ten men.
The red card effectively put a halt to any chance the “Trifylli” had of launching a strong effort to bag an equaliser, with them resigned to conceding possession for the sake of preserving their defensive structure.
Rangers eventually broke through the Greens’ defence once more in the 78th minute when Curtis’ replacement Djeidi Gassama powered forward in an eerily similar run the youngster produced before his goal.
Like Curtis, Gassama’s dribble preceded a stellar goal from outside the box with the only difference being that the Frenchman smacked it into the bottom left corner.
The goal typified the evening with Rangers stepping up in the crucial moments and Panathinaikos failing.
The Greens now have a huge deficit heading into the second leg next week at the Olympic Stadium, with the challenge now being to somehow muster a Herculean effort to keep their Champions League campaign alive.
