Moments of inactivity in the defense and an expulsion in the middle of the second half were crucial for Panathinaikos who couldn’t leave “G. Karaiskakis” stadium with a benefit, although the Greens were leading in the score of the derby against their “eternal rival”. Macheda scored his ninth goal for the season giving his team the opportunity to open the score. Olympiacos, though, managed to get the better of Panathinaikos with a total comeback and won finally 3-1.

The match started having the hosts playing better and pressing as they wanted to be the first to score. After the first 20 minutes, Panathinaikos equilibrated in the field and showed that they could threaten the rival goalie with their counterattacks.  In one of them, in the 29th minute, Macheda won a penalty, allowed by the Croatian referee after consulting the VAR. The Italian striker shot the penalty and opened the score for the Greens in the 31st minute.

This goal gave a psychological boost to Lazlo Boloni’s players and if they were a bit more careful in their final efforts they would have scored a second goal before the break. Although one could predict that the first half would be victorious for Panathinaikos, Hassan scored the equalizer in the third minute of the additional time.

No important chances were created by both teams during the first minutes of the second period. The stadium’s clock showed the 66th minute when the referee took out a second yellow card for Pouggouras who was expelled, leaving his team with one player less. From that very moment and on the hosting team started coming more often toward Dioudis’ goalposts achieving a total comeback, thanks to a second goal scored by Hassan in the 72nd minute.

Lazlo Boloni’s payers continued to strive and were very close to equalize the score at least twice with Carlitos who missed to send the ball into the rival nets at first and then when another of his shoots was stopped by Sa. The final third goal for Olympiakos was scored in the very last minute of the additional time by Bruma, as all Panathinaikos’ players were left in the rival area looking to score the equalizer.

Οlympiacos: Sa, Αndroutsos, Papastathopoulos, Semedo, Ba (36′ Hassan), Cholevas, M’vila, Bouchalakis (68′ Camara), Fortounis (68′ Bruma), Μassouras (90′ Reabciuk), Εl Arabi.

Panathinaios: Dioudis, Μollo, Pouggouras, Schenkeveld (46′ Αlexandropoulos), Juankar, Velez, Νiasse, Μauricio (77′ Ιoannidis), Villafañez (84′ Carlitos), Chatziyiovannis (79′ Αitor), Μacheda (83′ Ngbakoto).