Champions League, Barcelona Vs Panathinaikos: All the records.

Before going in details about the match tomorrow, It is fitting to start with match records. You can find the following info on UEFA's site but here it is packed and delivered in a more organized way -or so I think. The Match preview will follow.

Formed in 1908, as one of the oldest Greek clubs, Prasini won 20 domestic leagues and 17 Greek cups. They come back to the big stage after missing last season’s Champions league train. 

Panathinaikos is the most successful Greek club in terms of achievements in European competitions . They have reached the Champions League final in 1971 (former European champions' club cup), the semi-finals twice (1985,1996), and in 1971 , they lost to Nacional Montevideo for the Intercontinental Cup (1-1 in Greece, 1-2 in Uruguay), in which they played due to Ajax's absence. However, Panathinaikos is the second most successful regarding the titles conquered in Greek competitions. (wiki)

Their Heaviest and most recent away defeat in UEFA club competitions was –interestingly- against Barcelona during UEFA Champions’ League group stage where a hatrick by Eto’o added to a goal by Van Bommel and a fifth scored by our own Messi fixed the records after a goalless draw in Athens. 

Yet, that’s not the only time Barcelona caused a notable damage for Panathinaikos. The two teams met in 2002 in the quarter final. Panathinaikos won at their home 1-0 from Basinas penalty before suffering a defeat in the second leg 3-1, two goals by current Barca B coach Luis Enrique and a third by Saviola completing a comeback after a shocking early goal by Konstantinou in the 8th minute. That result brought an end to one of the best Panathinaikos achievements in the Champions league, reaching the quarter finals. 

Panathinaikos played eleven games in Spain against Liga clubs in different European competitions, drawing once and suffering ten defeats. While in 21 meetings against Spanish teams (Home and away) they managed to win 3 times and draw 6 times and lose 12 matches. Scoring 17 goals and conceding 35 times. 

In 2009, they faced two Spanish teams. In season 2008-2009 They drew 1-1 against Villarreal in Spain (Rossi 67(p); Karagounis 59), before losing 1-2 at home (Mantzios 55; Ibagaza 49, Llorente 70).

Five months later (Season 2009-2010) they lost 2-3 (Salpingidis 47, Leto 74; Maxi Rodríguez 36, Forlán 63, Agüero 70) in Athens and 2-0 (Vyntra 4(og), Agüero 83) in Madrid against Atletico.

Last time Panathinaikos played in the Champions league, they started with two defeats but then picked up a draw and three successive victories to win the group ahead of Inter and qualify for the knockout rounds for the first time in seven years. Only to be knocked out by Villarreal, finishing their run where they avoided any defeats in 3 away games (including a draw against Villarreal) and added that to two wins.

Coached by the 45 years old coach and Panathinaikos former playermaker Nikos Nioplias and assisted by the club's legendary striker Krzysztof Warzycha, they finished last season winning the double (League and cup). This season they made lot of changes in the squad adding Jean-Alain Boumsong (Olympique Lyonnais), Ex-Barcelona player Luís García (Real Racing Club), Sidney Govou (Olympique Lyonnais), Giorgos Ioannidis (Iraklis FC), Damien Plessis (Liverpool FC),Daniel Fernandes (VfL Bochum 1848, loan) and offloading 13 players. They drew their first game against Xanthi FC at home 1-1 with Petropoulos scoring their goal in the 8th minute. In their second game Cissé scored a penalty in the 43th minute securing an away win and putting Panathinaikos in the fifth place on the league table.

Barcelona played five games at home against Greek clubs and won the five matches, while out of five matches in Greece Barcelona won two, drew one, and lost two. The Catalans scored 25 times against the Greek and conceded four.

Barcelona have won their group in each of the last three seasons and qualified for the knockout rounds eight times in the last nine campaigns, the sole exception being 2003/04 when they were not involved in the competition.

Barcelona won five out of six home games last season before their semi-final defeat, a 1-0 home win against Inter insufficient to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit. They also faced the Nerazzurri in the opening group fixture 12 months ago, a game which ended goalless in San Siro. That ended a run of nine successive Matchday 1 victories for the Catalan club dating back to 1999/2000. The last time they lost their first UEFA Champions League fixture of the season was in 1997/98 when they went down 3-2 at Newcastle United FC. They have won nine and drawn two of the subsequent 11 opening games.

This season, after winning the Spanish super cup, Barcelona won their first game in the liga against Racing 0-3 (Messi- Iniesta-Villa) before a shocking defeat in their first liga game at home this season against Newly promoted Hercules 0-2, which out them in the 11th space on the table.

Referee Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)

Assistant referees Luca Maggiani (ITA), Elenito Di Liberatore (ITA)

Additional assistant referee Andrea De Marco (ITA)

Additional assistant referee Daniele Orsato (ITA)

Fourth official Andrea Romeo (ITA)

UEFA Delegate Robert Sterckx (BEL)

UEFA Referee observer László Vagner (HUN)

Posted by Ramzi on 08:12. Filed under Barcelona, Champions League, coverage, Football, Panathinaikos . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0