In spite of its superiority during the whole course of the duel, Panathinaikos lost in Xanthi by the local team. The referees were the negative “headliners” in a match realized in Xanthi Arena, for the 22nd match day of Super League’s championship.

The “Greens” could not continue their victorious raw, losing a duel they were controlling most of the time and despite the fact that they created chances these couldn’t be transformed into a goal, mainly because of the excellent performance of Xanthi’s goalkeeper Zivkovic. The referees played a decisive role regarding the course of the match. In the 10th and in the 20th minute linesman Charissis “stopped” wrongly both Berg and Villafañes for being in off side positions, as they were getting in the back of the rival’s defense.

The first assistant referee Karagiozopoulos did the same with Villafañes in the beginning of the second part, as the Argentinean was alone in the box after receiving a long pass from Zeca. During the whole game Panathinaikos was taking many initiatives and lost some of them, though, mainly with Klonaridis, Berg and Boumal as the home team limited itself to a strictly defensive role.

Nevertheless, Xanthi “opened” the score in the 67th minute, without even making a normal chance, as Vassilakakis received the ball in front of him, after a save of his defendant teammates. He shot powerfully from a 25 meter distance sending the ball in the left “window” of the goalposts of Vlachodimos, who was unable to stop the ball. The game continued in the same way till its end.

Panathinaikos was still pressing but without succeeding to send the ball into the nets of Zivkovic, who was voted MVP of the match. A shoot by Mpoku which passed slightly out and another one by Moledo, which was spectacularly redirected into a corner by the hosts goalie, just before the end of the game, were the highlights of the match.

The lineup:

Xanthi: Zivkovic, Baxevanidis, Lisgaras, Fliskas, Sylla, Camara, De Lucas, Soltani (79’ Triadis), Vassilakakis (81’ Mejia), Lucero (56’ Lazic), Yunes.

Panathinaikos: Vlachodimos Od., Coulibaly, Koutroumbis, Moledo, Hult, Boumal (63’ Mpoku), Zeca, Kourbelis (71’ Vlachodimos P.), Villafañes, Klonaridis (75’ Lod), Berg.