Panathinaikos vs Larissa 4-0 ; Boring First Half, Excellent Second

By: Minas | October 6th, 2009

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Watching the result of this game, you’d probably think that this was a very easy match for us. Well, to be honest , in the first half things looked VERY difficult.

Our starting eleven was the same as the one against Dinamo. I would like Ninis to be on the starting XI instead of Karagounis, but of course Ten Cate is the coach, he is the one who decides.

As I said, the first half wasn’t that good. Larissa players played with a lot of passion, and they had some chances to score. Larissa had their first chance in the 6th minute, when Aarab’s shot went wide of the post. Some minutes later, Antonio de Nigris‘ shot was saved by Tzorvas. (I am sure that Galinovic would have conceded that goal).

After some minutes, we started to play better, but still we weren’t good enough. In the 31st minute, Vyntra’s volley hit the outside of the post. After 14 minutes, we finally scored. At first, Salpingidis‘ header was saved by Malarz. Sebastian Leto took the corner kick, the ball passed though everyone , and finally reached Vyntra whose shot made the back of the net.

That was the first half. Everyone was happy that we were winning, but our performance was bad. The second half , in the beginning, looked exactly like the first one. Larissa still played much better than us. Five minutes after the second half had started, Tuama’s shot hit the post – Larissa could have equalised here.

In the 61′ minute, Karagounis was substituted (in my opinion he was our worst player), and Ninis got in. That was it. After this, we became fantastic. Ninis‘ passes are much better than Karagounis‘ , plus he is much faster.

5 minutes later, Katsouranis scored with a header from about 25(!) yards. Not bad, not bad at all. Probably one of the best goals of this year’s Superleague. Malarz came off his line to clear a closs, but unfortunately for him Katsouranis scored.

Three minutes after that, we scored again. The third goal was a bit similar with the first one. Ninis took the corner kick, and Kante’s header made the ball reach Cisse, who slid the loose ball into the Larissa goal from close range.

Larissa lost their last chance to score some minutes later, when Romeu’s shot hit the post again.

Three minutes before the end of the game, Gabriel gave a great pass to Cisse, who easily scored another goal.

Aftermath: Larissa could have scored a goal or two, but it was a deserved win for us, with a great performance in the second half as well. Ninis once again proved that he is a great player, and Tzorvas made some good saves . The most important ; Djibril finally scored (after more than a month – his first goal at Panathinaikos was in a match against Ergotelis , in August). He was pretty anxious , everyone expects him to score a lot of goals. (Of course, some greek fans are very stupid ; they called Cisse bad player because he hadn’t scored so far….whatever… ).

Panathinaikos (Henk ten Cate) – Tzorvas, Vyntra, Bjarsmyr, Sarriegi (Gabriel 22′), Kante, Gilberto, Katsouranis, Karagounis (C) (Ninis 61′), Salpingidis (Rukavina 74′), Leto, Cisse

Larissa (Marinos Ouzounidis) – Malarz, Boukouvalas, Dabizas (C), Melissis, Katsiaros, Aarab, Delson (Metin 63′), Romeu (Kyriakidis 73′), Simic (Siatravanis 73′), Tuama, de Nigris

* My english is not the best out there, so the match reports aren’t well-written (I guess). I hope that the highlights that I post help you understand better the match.

* After the international games , we play against Kavala , in their pitch.