Panathinaikos: One Step From Champions League With UEFA Europa League Level List Blog – Yannis Seritis

Yiannis Seritis writes about Panathinaikos’ almost perfect first half in Portugal, about Braga who are now favourites, and about the work of Jovanović creating a team that better matches the individual quality of each Panathinaikos player.

The mind was there. It showed how focused everyone was in an almost perfect first half. When you make two “mental” fouls in 105 minutes of a match so fast and dynamic (“selling” Vilena in the 43rd minute and the fault is mainly due to Yavday, but not only … at the stage 2-0), you are excellent readers and very focused on the instructions ya the team.

And the body was there. It has been shown to be tolerable Panathinaikos Until the 97th minute, always of course with the substitutions Jovanovic makes, usually after 60 minutes. Two of them were heroes again, as they were in the two matches against Marseille: the great Fotis Ioannidis and the sophisticated Bernard – as a substitute.

The soul gave everything it could. No one has the right to complain about everyone’s effort.

But this is the quality of Panathinaikos! And it only changes for the better because of Ivan Jovanovic, who makes them look better as a whole than they are individually.

Yes, Panathinaikos has made amazing strides in two years. Yes, he has increased his budget, and especially this year, he has greatly boosted the aspect that has been hurting him most: his midfield. But Juricic is not De Bruyne (nor is Ike Gonzalez), Villina is not Bellingham (nor is Karagones), Sporar is not Lewandowski (nor Berg), Palacios is not Saka (nor is Leto), Jedvage, Magnusson, Schenkefeld are very good for SuperLeague level. But “there” is a mirror reflecting everyone. About how much everyone “counts” against the best, at the highest level.

Every Panathinaikos player – with the exception of Brignoli – carries many individual weaknesses. In different fields. That’s why he plays for Panathinaikos and not for a Champions League last-16 team. This Panathinaikos is not (yet) a group level team in the Champions League based on their list. He got to where he is now thanks to his entire team and the great work of his coach and partners. His roster needs a bigger upgrade in the future to qualify for ‘Champions League level’. Today, it is the list of UEFA Europa League groups. Two years ago they were at the conference league level. Such a big difference that many of us forget, and we only see it today. See Dnipro and Marseille!

The job of the coach, every coach, is to highlight the talents of each player as much as he can, while at the same time minimizing or ‘camouflaging’ his or her shortcomings. All Almeida can’t get into Livia’s mind when he doesn’t give the easy ‘catch’ pass to Gasinovic. Not every Jovanovic can get into the mind of every Sporar to be able to predict the quality of the ball and the position of the attacker. It’s their job to talk to them every day, but the decisions are up to the players.

for the level Champions LeagueTherefore, Panathinaikos needs better goalkeepers and better midfielders, and not just (obviously) a basic centre-forward. At the moment, this kiosk produces milk of a much higher quality than all the players working in it. Evidence of tangible and “raw” and perhaps leather? The vast majority of his players will be playing in the Premier League group stage for the first time if they make it through on Tuesday! In other words, they will live the best experience of their career with Panathinaikos today! We are not talking about Ioannidis, Vaginidis and Tserine. We’re talking about a lot of great players: Brignoli, Perez, Juancar, the goalkeepers, Palacios, Aitor, Mancini, for most of them! And those who lived through the experience (Bernard, Djuricic, Verbeek, Sporar) have… 1/10 of the shares of Karagounis and Pasinas. How much exaggeration is on this team?

As much as she is called upon to do on Tuesday. On that night, Panathinaikos will face an additional burden. weight “must”. You want – you don’t want, with 60,000 fans in the stands, you feel trembling and ‘necessary’. What he did with Dnipro – not with Marseille – but only for 15 minutes! Until Sporar scored the bad “Fingers” 0-1 in Slovakia. Panathinaikos could have deserved, and should have gone 1-0 yesterday in Portugal. He played an almost flawless first half, better than the first half in the first leg against Dnipro. Half the time like 90 minutes from the avenue with Marseille!

Starring the terrible Vagiannidis, the exceptional Jevdai at the time and the amazing Palacios who did everything right except for the last effort. The pace of the game, the control of Panathinaikos, everything was “as he wanted” Jovanovic. The second is everything Evan didn’t want! The ups and downs of the ball, high passes, big gaps in the midfield due to Villena-Gorisic, a poor game by the Greens who saw a great opportunity as the ball hit Mancini’s head and settled in front of him before Sporar helped as if it were him. .. Ronaldinho and a goal for Panathinaikos, who is learning to “hit” this year also from the axis (just as happened with Bernard in the match that ended 1-0 against Marseille).

To get to the stars now, he’ll have to do this, too: overturn the first match. The winner of the first match usually advances. Braga, who looked like he could “kill” you on the move and in set play, now has the upper hand. But Panathinaikos remained steadfast even when the scoreboard in Levoros read “1-2” with Dnipro and when the scoreboard read 2-0 in the Velodrome. Let’s say it again: “Never underestimate his team.”