Panathinaikos will spend Easter at the top of the Super League with “roommate” AEK, who, with excellent play for 45 minutes in the first half and with proper management in the second half, beat Olympiacos 2-0 honestly at Apostolos. Nikolaidis”, in the big “eternal” derby of the 4th round of the Super League playoffs.

Sporar in the 28th minute and El Arabi’s own goal in the 35th minute decided a great match where the Greens looked more determined than their opponents and rightly achieved their 2nd mini league win (they also have two draws with AEK and Volos), while for Olympiacos, who played poorly for most of the match, it was the first defeat (it came from two wins and one draw), and now the case for the Piraeus title is even more difficult.

Panathinaikos entered strongly from the start, wanting to take advantage of Palacios’ speed from the right flank, while Olympiacos tried to “build” their attacks from the left flank with Reabchuk-Fortounis.

The Greens played the first final of the match in the 6th minute when Bernard’s ball hit the leg of an Olympiacos defender, resulting in a corner, but his kick changed direction and went for a corner.

The hosts were unlucky after a few minutes, as Sarliya was injured (twisted his ankle), and Jovanovic made a forced substitution at the very beginning, Magnusson took the place of the Croatian stopper.

Olympiacos’ first final was scored in the 18th minute when James Rodríguez’s shot ran into Brignoli. The match was balanced until the 28th minute, but from that moment everything changed: Panathinaikos took the lead in just a few minutes.

Initially due to an unjustified mistake by Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the 28th minute. The experienced centre-back, under pressure from Sporar, attempted a completely wrong pass to Paschalakis, and the Slovenian striker redeemed himself for his pressure and flawless placement, “recording” 1-0 with his 10th Superliga goal this year.

Seven minutes later, Clover were 2-0 with El Arabi’s own goal (header on the first post) from Bernard’s corner kick. Olympiacos pressed until the end of the first half to cut the score, and in the 40th minute they had their first big chance of the game. However, after a header from Masura, Brignoli was ready to block.

Seeing that his team was far behind in attack, José Añigo made two substitutions at the beginning of the restart. Biel and Bacabu took the places of James Rodriguez and El Araby, from whom the French expected more.

As expected, the “red-whites” played everything in the world. From the first minutes they seized the initiative of movements, and the hosts gave way to them and waited for a good counterattack.

In the 54th minute, Palacios landed a dangerous cross from the right, Paschalakis narrowly cleared it, and a minute later the Olympiacos goalkeeper came on time again and cleared the ball before Sporar became dangerous.

The hosts continued to properly press and close the lanes, as on the one hand the changes made by Anigo did not help, and on the other hand, the fatigue factor began to show up in Piraeus’s efforts.

In the 77th minute, the Red-Whites threatened Fortuny’s head in order not to surprise Brignoli, who was once again in the right position. It was their last chance in a derby that ended in a triumph for the Greens…

Referee: Carlos del Tero Grande
Yellow: Sporar, Peret, Kurbelis

PANATINAIKOS (Ivan Jovanovic): Brignoli, Sanchez, Senckefeld, Sarlia (Lt. Col. Magnuson, 15), Huancar, Perez, Kourbelis (Mancini, 70), Serine (Kleinheisler, 85), Bernard (Chokay, 84), Palacios, Sporar (69 ‘ Ioannidis).

OLYMPIC (Jose Añigo): Paschalakis, Ba, Papastathopoulos, Rodini, Reampchuk, Embila, Huang, Fortounis (Vrusai 81), Masouras (Valbuena 69), James Rodriguez (Biel 46), El Arabi (Bakabu 46) .

MONKEY BEE