Panathinaikos, with a performance that reminded of the times when they won the ‘double’ in Europe, defeated Dnipro 3-1 in Kosice and made a leap towards… Marseille. With their victory over the Ukrainian team, formally the hosts but away from their war-torn home. The Greens from Greece have ‘one- and-a-half’ feet in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, where the French team awaits them.

Panathinaikos achieved a great victory, the first since their return to the European leagues. The top of the ‘double’ was Huankar, who provided the two assists for as many goals and won the penalty for the 0-3. Sporar was also very good, opening the scoring and fighting many battles with the two Ukrainian stoppers, Villena who dominated in the middle, stealing many balls, and Djuricicic, who dominated offense generation while scoring the 0-2 goal.

Bart Schenkfeld’s injury was as negative sign. He left the game at 20′ with a biceps strain in his right leg and gave his place to Yentva. The Croatian, in his debut for Panathinaikos, ‘extinguished’ the star of the Ukrainians, Dovbik.

In the 10th minute the Greens opened the scoring with a great combination. Bernard superbly switched the ball for Huancar, who evaded his opponent with an ‘apron’ and turned the ball into the small area to Sporar, who scored from close range to make it 1-0 for Panathinaikos.

At 74′ Verbic took out Huankar on his own on the left flank the Spanish full-back crossed. He sent the ball at the right moment to Djuricicic, who got an excellent right-footed shot that ended up in the left corner of Kinareikin’s goal to make it 2-0 to Panathinaikos.

At 82 minutes, Huankar was brought down by Dovbik, with referee Daniele Kifi pointing to the infringement. Fotis Ioannidis took the penalty, making it 3-0 for the Greens and effectively ending the qualification for Ivan Jovanovic’s team.

In the 90th minute, in the only moment when the Panathinaikos defense was idle after a static play, Kaplienko scored from close range to make the final score 3-1 for Dnipro.