TOPS
For those who had forgotten, Bernard remembered everyone, and in what way! It was he who offered victory to his team against OM in the 83rd minute, only 13 minutes after coming on. After a missed intervention by Balerdi, Bernard took advantage of the service of his partner Ioannidis to deceive Lopez with a cross shot from the right and thus give the advantage to his formation before the return match in Marseille on Tuesday.
The Greeks showed a much greater determination and more desire to qualify than OM, and this from the first seconds. The numerous duels were most often won by the locals who forced the Marseillais to raise the cursor thus causing a lack of control illustrated by three yellow cards in the first half and a red in the second. The physical and strategic battle was won by Ivan Jovanovic’s players, who proved to be much fitter and starved for the Champions League onslaught.
FLOPS
Often dominated, like his partners, by the intensity and desire of Panathinaikos, the Central African midfielder made the task more difficult for his team by receiving a yellow card after only three minutes of play, the forcing you to defend with caution. Which was not the case during his late sole on Djuricic (65th) and his red card which allowed the Greeks to evolve at 11 against 10 for more than 25 minutes. He illustrated the lack of discipline and control of his team, which will have to do without him in the second leg.
The lack of attacking spirit of the Phocaeans is a reflection of the performance of the Gabonese, not yet well integrated into Marcelino’s game. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a lot of things this Wednesday evening, including some back-to-back transmissions to allow his team to keep the ball or even the possibility of launching a face-to-face between Ndiaye and Brignoli (63rd). After his rather average match against Bayer Leverkusen a week earlier, in a friendly, the former Chelsea (recruited for free this summer) did not reassure against Pana. He finished his match in the 86th minute, replaced by Chancel Mbemba, with only one chance to remember, a header off target from a good cross from Renan Lodi (22nd).
