UEFA Champions League - Full Time Report – Panathinaikos vs. Barcelona
The Spanish Champions were ready to give the Greek side a visit during a midweek UEFA Champions League game and Guardiola’s men were ready to face their next challenge as they went head to head with the Greek Champions in a “must-win”
game. In case the Catalan giants won the game, they would qualify for the next round of the European tournament and the Spanish side had the same opportunity during the last Champions League game in which they were against the Danish side Copenhagen; however,
they only managed a draw away from home and it was now an opportunity for them to qualify for the knock out stages as they were away from home.
The Spanish coach was ready to give the Greek side a hard time as Barcelona are considered to be one of the best teams in Europe; however, they haven’t won many away games in European competitions while performing under Josep Guardiola.
The Spanish coach decided to take a different team while playing against the Greek side as he had to save a few players for the El Classico coming their way on Monday.
It was Victor Valdes who featured in between the two poles as a goal stopper while Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Daniel Alves and Adriano were the ones helping him at the back. Javier Mascherano was the one playing as the holding midfielder
and he was assisted by Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez in the midfield. Pedro Rodriguez, David Villa and Lionel Messi were the ones playing up front to change the cause of the game through scoring goals.
For Panathinaikos, it was Alexandros Tzovas who was the goalkeeper and he was assisted by Loukas Vyntra, Cedric Kante, Stergos Marinos and Jean Alain at the back. Nikos Spiropoulos was also featuring at back to help the team at the back
while Kostas Katsouranis, Gilberto Silva and Lazaros featured in the midfield and were helped by Luis Garcia up front who featured as a striker for the Greek side.
The game started off in favour of Barcelona as they were dominating possession while being away from home and it was definitely Pedro Rodriguez’s night as he was definitely the man of the match. During the 27th minute, the Brazilian full
back Daniel Alves found the ball at his feet after a lose clearance from the home side’s defenders and he made no mistake in passing it on towards Pedro who planted it into the net to make it 0-1 for the visitors. After the first half both the teams left the
ground with Barcelona leading the game with a single goal.
Coming back in the second half, Barcelona were still the ones dominating possession of the ball and it took them approximately twenty minutes to double their lead and it was none other than their main man Lionel Messi who found his name
on the score board yet again as he scored a fantastic goal from his stronger left foot.
After only 7 minutes, it was Pedro Rodriguez who managed to score another goal with the help of Adriano. The Brazilian full back made a run from the left flank and found Pedro who made no mistake and struck the ball into the net to make it two to his name.
The game was totally dominated by the Spanish champions as they managed to give a shut up call to the critics who said that they cannot win games away from home. Guardiola sent out a clear message to his Spanish opponents Real Madrid who
also won their UEFA Champions League game. Now Barcelona were ready to face their rivals in the Spanish League, the Los Blancos who they are going to face on Monday.
Tags: