AEK lands derby and morale

Coach Giorgos Donis’s men overcome resistance of Panathinaikos to start with a win

AEK’s Ismael Blanco, Antonis Rikka and Nacho Scocco (left to right) celebrate the former’s successful penalty kick at the end of the first half of the Athens derby with Panathinaikos. AEK won 2-1.

The fortunes of the two Athens giants AEK and Panathinaikos were completely reversed on Sunday night after the former’s 2-1 triumph over the latter.

Contrary to their showing in Europe to date, with AEK being winless and disappointing and Panathinaikos marching on to the Champions League group stage, AEK started their Super League campaign with a morale-boosting win in front of 35,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium, while Panathinaikos was left reeling from its first loss in any competitive or friendly match this summer.

AEK took the lead at the Athens derby with 19 minutes on the clock thanks to a solo effort by Portuguese striker Edinho who made some space for himself on the left and send a curling shot to the top left corner of Panathinaikos’s goal that stunned keeper Mario Galinovic.

The Greens dominated possession in the rest of the first half but couldn’t translate that into any goal-scoring chances. Instead it was AEK who scored again before half time, after a controversial penalty decision at the first minute of injury time; Edinho was marked in the box by Panathinaikos’s Josu Sarriegi and Nikos Spyropoulos, but television replays showed no foul by either.

The referee actually waved “play on” but assistant referee Dimitris Saraidaris held up his flag for a penalty. Yesterday he was summoned for a disciplinary hearing at the Central Refereeing Committee (KED).

Last year’s top scorer in the Super League, Ismael Blanco, converted the spot kick coolly to give AEK a two-goal cushion at the end of the first half.

Little changed in the second half as Panathinaikos did not take advantage of its superiority with AEK shoring up its defense to maintain its lead. The hosts could have stretched their lead even further but Nacho Scocco’s shot bounced off the cross-bar with 10 minutes left.

Giorgos Karagounis’s curled freekick that found the target at the fourth minute of injury time proved too little, too late for Panathinaikos, while AEK breathed a sigh of relief as it has now put its European disaster last month behind it. This was the first win for AEK over Panathinaikos for almost two years.

A Super Leage first-timer, an angry Henk Ten Cate, Panathinaikos’s coach, said after the match that there were only three players in his team who wanted to win the game: Simao, Gilberto Silva and Karagounis.

“It seemed that when we do not fight on the pitch we are an ordinary team,” he said.

AEK coach Giorgos Donis said it does not matter who wins on the first round of the championship but who collects the most points at the end of the league.

He was also boosted yesterday by the confirmation of the loan deal for Argentine midfielder Agustin Pelletieri. AEK announced his signing on a one-year loan from Argentine club Lanus, with an option to buy him in summer 2009.

“I wanted to play in Europe and when I learned about the proposal by a team in Greece I did not think twice about it,” Pelletieri stated in Athens after signing his contract with his new club.

In the other late kick-off on Sunday, Larissa thumped new boys Athens side Thrasyvoulos Phylis 3-0 at home.