The curtain came down at the historic Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, the place where the Panathinaikos Idea was born and flourished. In a season that unfortunately did not produce the desired results for our team, the Greens showed character in their final match. Despite falling behind 2-0 against PAOK FC, Panathinaikos responded strongly in the second half and fought back to earn a 2-2 draw with goals from Cerin and Taborda.
Panathinaikos FC started the match determined to apply pressure and created three dangerous chances through Anass Zaroury (8’), Taborda (10’) and Karol Swiderski (19’). Without having threatened significantly beforehand, PAOK opened the scoring in the 29th minute when Ozdoev headed home from a corner taken by Pelkas. The Greens were affected by the goal, lost their cohesion, and conceded a second goal in the 35th minute when Mithou finished from inside the penalty area. In first-half stoppage time, Lafont made a crucial save to deny the unmarked Pelkas.
Despite trailing 2-0, Panathinaikos refused to give up, produced a dynamic response and were rewarded. After a series of missed opportunities by Zaroury (51’), Cerin (56’), Taborda (60’), Zaroury again (64’), Antino (65’) and Zaroury once more (65’), the goal the team deserved finally arrived. In the 68th minute, following a corner by Zaroury, Taborda won the first header, Swiderski flicked on, and Cerin stabbed the ball home to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
The Greens gained momentum and equalized in the 81st minute. Kyriakopoulos delivered a cross from the left, Swiderski’s header was saved by Pavlenka, but the onrushing Taborda smashed the rebound into the net to make it 2-2, which remained the final score.
Panathinaikos: Lafont, Calabria, Kyriakopoulos, Erik Palmer-Brown (50’ Javi Hernández), Touba, Kontouris (46’ Renato Sanches), Cerin, Andino (81’ Pandović), Zaroury, Taborda, Swiderski.
PAOK: Pavlenka, Sánchez (69’ Kenny), Baba, Michailidis, Kedziora, Zafeiris, Ozdoev, Pelkas (59’ Ivanusec), Zivkovic, Konstantelias (88’ Giakoumakis), Mithu (59’ Jeremejeff).
