Chaotic scenes at the big Athens derby: Flare injures a teammate of three Slovenians, game suspended and cancelled
Photo source: screenshot
A match between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, considered the eternal Greek derby, goes far back in history and beyond football. The outstanding fan scenery at each other’s matches is something that just goes with the territory, but this time it all went too far. The Athens derby turned into chaos, with the match not actually being played to the end.
The club from Piraeus had been accumulating wins in the championship until today’s match and was still 100%, while the eternal rival, whose colours are also defended by three Slovenian national team players, was not too far behind. At the same time, we are talking about two teams that are the only two teams in the championship that are performing exceptionally well in both attack and defence, so it seemed like a spectacle was about to unfold. But…
The starting eleven included the Slovenian hero from Belfast Adam Gnezda Čerin, while Andraž Šporar and Benjamin Verbič were on the substitutes’ bench. It was Gnezda Čerin who could almost have been a hero again after just ten minutes of play in the first half, when his shot from the edge of the penalty area was deflected into the top right corner of the net by home goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis. In 28. minute Georgios Vagiannidis converted a rebounded ball into a goal to give Panathinaikos the lead and they went into the break with a 1-0 advantage.
The hosts equalised after just three minutes of stoppage time, when Mady Camara, following a pass from Daniel Podenc, shot accurately into the bottom left corner of the net. In 56th minute the main referee Fabio Maresca stopped the match because a pyrotechnic device flew towards the visiting defender Juankar, injuring him while he was warming up. Šporar was closest to him and helped him first, while Verbič was one step away.
The match official then examined the Spaniard and caused a huge outcry by first ordering him to go to hospital and then changing his decision. The outrage against the doctor was mainly directed at Panathinaikos on social media, but at the same time, photos were also leaked suggesting that the doctor was a Panathinaikos fan…
After more than an hour of waiting, the Italian referee Maresca wanted to resume the match, but the Panathinaikos players refused to return to the pitch. It will become clear in the coming days how this will all play out in the end.
This text was automatically translated using AI.
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