Panathinaikos vs PAOK 2-2: “Suicide” on the Avenue for the Thessaloniki side

PAOK committed suicide with a 2-2 draw against Panathinaikos in the 6th and final round of the Super League play-offs, losing their ticket to the Champions League.

In an open game on the Avenue, PAOK found two goals within five minutes in the first half through Ozdoev and Mythos, but Panathinaikos responded in the second half to deny the Thessaloniki side their … dream of second place.

With a dynamic second-half performance and scorers Cherin and Tamborda, the Greens said goodbye to Leophoros with a draw, finishing fourth in the standings, with PAOK remaining third, behind AEK Athens and Olympiacos.

The game

Both teams were looking for a goal from the start of the game and had some good shots in the opening minutes of the match, but in the first big play of the game, PAOK managed to open the scoring.

From a corner kick by Pelka on 30 minutes, Ozdoev found himself unmarked in the heart of the Panathinaikos defence and did not miss with a header to make it 1-0 to the Thessaloniki side inside the Λεωφόρο.

A second goal for Lucescu’s side followed immediately, as on 35 minutes, Zivkovic from the right found Mythos unchallenged at the second post, only for the young striker to score with a flawless one-timer to make it 2-0 in favour of PAOK.

The Thessaloniki side then had a missed one-on-one with Pelka, but the scoreline did not change in the first half. After the break, on the contrary, the … up and down continued, with Panathinaikos having stepped up their performance though.

The Greens created the conditions to reduce the deficit and succeeded with Cherin making it 2-1 with a projection after a long run in the visitors’ area in the 68th minute of the match.

PAOK tried to finish the game immediately afterwards, but had a couple of missed chances and a disallowed goal from Konstantelia for a foul on the international winger at the start of the game.

It was thus Panathinaikos who came within a goal of another in 82 minutes, with Taborda getting the rebound after Pavlenka had parried a header from Sfinterski to thunder in for a 2-2 lead in the match.