Gilberto in Dinamo Bucuresti v Panathinaikos
October 1, 2009
Karagounis settles dour clash
Panathinaikos midfielder Giorgos Karagounis struck late on to earn his side a 1-0 victory over Dinamo Bucharest in an underwhelming Europa League match in front of an empty Stadion Dinamo.
Dinamo had been ordered to play the match behind closed doors after the crowd trouble that forced the abandonment of their play-off against Liberec earlier in the competition, but the fans did not miss much as both sides struggled for continuity.
The Group F match looked destined to finish goalless until Karagounis fired in a low shot 11 minutes from the end.
Dinamo could have snatched a point when they were awarded a penalty two minutes from the end but substitute Claudiu Niculescu passed up the opportunity by firing wide from 12 yards.
It meant Pana secured their first points of the competition to join Dinamo on three points after two games.
A forgettable first half was 20 minutes old before either team threatened even to shoot. The first chance came from a free-kick but set-piece specialist Karagounis disappointingly floated his effort into the arms of Dinamo goalkeeper Emilian Dolha.
The home side’s first shot did not arrive until the half-hour mark and even then it was speculative as Gabriel Bostina fired well over from 35 yards.
Pana were at least linking some passing phases together and a patient move sent Gilberto Silva clear. The former Arsenal midfielder could have raced a further 20 yards with the ball but he lacked composure and his premature shot dribbled to Dolha.
The visitors should have gone ahead after 54 minutes when Dimitris Salpingidis shot straight at Dolha from 10 yards after some bullocking work from Kostas Katsouranis had teed him up.
Dinamo almost stole an opener when two minutes later Gabriel Torje got behind the Pana defence and hooked a looping shot which hit the crossbar and bounced over, before substitute Ianis Zicu’s effort was correctly chalked off for offside.
The breakthrough finally came with 11 minutes to go following some strong work from substitute Ante Rukavina on the edge of the area. The striker held off a defender and laid off a pass for Karagounis who fired his low shot through a clutch of players and into the bottom-left corner.
Dinamo were gifted a chance to level two minutes from the end when Mattias Bjarsmyr barged Andrei Cristea over in the area and the official stationed behind the by-line awarded a penalty.
Niculescu stepped up to take the spot-kick but slid his effort wide of the left-hand post.