One late first-half goal by Rodinay was enough for Olympiacos to get a fair win over Panathinaikos 1-0 in the fifth-round Super League playoff derby.
The Reds were superior in the “G. Karaiskakis”, against an “anemic” Panathinaikos and after PAOK’s draw with AEK in Toumba, they took the lead in the battle for the second place leading to the qualification for the next Champions League.
Starting with two strikers in their lineup and with a clean 4-4-2 in their backline, Panathinaikos tried to strike early in transition and 15 minutes threatened the Olympiacos defense when a nice move by Cherin with the ball and a pass to Andino, the Argentine’s shot was stopped by an Olympiacos defender’s foot while on its way to the goal.
Two minutes later (17′), Cicinho turned and dodged Palmer-Brown, but his shot went over Lafone’s goal. Olympiacos scored at 42′ through Bruno, but with a VAR and on-field review, the goal was disallowed for suggesting an offensive foul by Cipioni on Taborda at the start of the play.
The Piraeus side found the goal they were looking for in the fifth minute of half-time stoppage time when Martins turned to Taremi who evaded Touba, crossed the ball to Lafone’s right post and the onrushing Rodinay made it 1-0. A play that was controlled by VAR with referee Obrennovic eventually signalling “kick-off” as Panathinaikos players were protesting an offensive foul by Taremi on Touba.
Panathinaikos got off to a slightly better start in the second half, but it was Olympiacos who came closest to scoring with Taremi’s direct pass after Rodinay’s foul, which was impressively saved by Lafone in the corner.
On 67′ Martins shot over the bar from a good position inside the Panathinaikos area, while on 84′ Lafon missed another very good chance when he stepped on the edge of the area and shot, but Lafon had a very good reaction and saved it, in the last good chance of the game.
Referee: Rade Obenovic (Slovenia)
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Yellow: 50′ Kostinia, 87′ Sipioni – 76′ Calabria
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Suspensions: –
The line-ups of the two teams:
OLYMPIACOS (Jose Luis Medilibar): Tzolakis, Costinia, Rejos, Pirola, Bruno, Garcia, Esse (36′ l.t. Cipioni), Rodinay, Martins (73′ Andre Luis), Cicinho, Taremi (73′ El Kaabi).
PANATHINIKOS (Rafa Benitez): Lafon, Calabria, Palmer-Brown, Touba, Kyriakopoulos, Cherin (78′ Tsirivieja), Kontouris (62′ Siopis), Taborda (62′ Djuricicic), Antino (46′ Zaruri), Sviderski (82′ Jagusic), Tettey.
