Panathinaikos 1 (Duricic 53) Rangers 1 (Gassama 60)
Aggregate: 1-3
Attendance: 36,121
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Rangers progressed to Qualifying Round Three of the UEFA Champions League with a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Panathinaikos at the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Wednesday evening.
The performance may not have been spectacular – but the result was of critical importance to the club.
Russell Martin fielded an unchanged side from the First Leg at Ibrox eight days ago.
On a sultry evening with the temperature standing at 28C at kick-off the visitors, wearing predominantly all-white, went into the tie with a 2-0 advantage from Glasgow – but soon found themselves under sustained pressure in the early stages, with the 36,121 crowd providing a hostile atmosphere.
Kiriakopoulos broke down the right in the fifth minute before finding Bakasetas on the edge of the area, his left-foot shot just wide of the target, then soon afterwards Kiriakopoulos again threatened – his angled shot blocked by Jack Butland.
The ‘Gers ‘keeper was again called into action on thirteen minutes when Max Aarons was overpowered by Pellistri, before seeing his effort blocked.
Four minutes later a meandering run from Ioannidis found Kiriakopoulos on the edge of the area, his low angled shot being held by Butland.
The Greeks were enjoying far too much space down both flanks – underlined in the twentieth minute when Pellistri saw his cross from the right met by a near-post header from Ioannidis, bundled behind by Butland.
Too often recently carelessness has crept into the Ibrox defence – underlined starkly before the half-hour mark when Nasser Djiga lost possession to Duricic all too easily, only for Pellistri to slice his shot over.
Rangers were in truth fortunate to find themselves on level terms at the interval – they had struggled to make much progress in the opposition half – but the two-goal aggregate lead remained intact.
With no substitutions at half-time, Russell Martin was clearly satisfied with the situation – but within ten minutes of the restart the tie was back in the melting-pot when Duricic headed home from a Bakasetas cross. At first a linesman’s flag had indicated offside – but a lengthy VAR analysis eventually confirmed the goal.
The Stadium was now rocking with a febrile atmosphere as the Greeks drove forward in an effort to level the aggregate score.
The first substitution of the evening saw Djeidi Gassama introduced for Findlay Curtis on 57 minutes – and within three minutes of his introduction Rangers’ two-goal advantage had been restored when Nico Raskin broke down the left, his shot was blocked before Danilo, following up, had two efforts blocked before Gassama curled home a superb equaliser via an upright.
The raucous home support were effectively silenced – although ten minutes later Touba was close with a 25-yard shot that flew just wide.
Jefte was introduced for Kieran Dowell in the 73rd minute, with Cyriel Dessers and Nedim Bajrami substituting for Danilo and Joe Rothwell.
The drive had gone out of the home side as the minutes ticked away – and indeed Dessers had a good chance to win the game in the dying seconds when he broke through only to be denied by Dragowski.
Nevertheless the 1-1 draw was more than enough to secure Rangers’ progress to Qualifying Round Three where they will face Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic.
Panathinaikos: Dragowski; Kotsiras (Cerin 66), Palmer-Brown (Jedvaj 77), Touba, Kiriakopoulos; Pellistri, Maksimovic, Bakasetas (Tete 66), Chirivella, Duricic (Swiderski 77); Ioannidis (Jeremejeff 86)
Unused Subs: Lafont, Kotsaris, Ingason, Mancini, Mladenovic, Fikaj, Bregou
Rangers: Butland; Tavernier, Souttar, Djiga, Aarons: Dowell (Jefte 73), Diomande, Rothwell (Bajrami 81), Raskin, Curtis (Gassama 57); Danilo (Dessers 81)
Unused Subs: Cameron, Kelly, Cortes, Barron, Fernandez, Rice, Gentles, Hutton
Referee: Simone Sozza (Italy)
By Robert McElroy