Olympiacos Beat Panathinaikos 1-0 as Ten Men Hold On

By Taki Panos

Center backs are supposed to stop goals, not decide derbies. Nobody told Panagiotis Retsos. The Olympiacos captain hammered home a first-time shot in the 34th minute on Sunday night, and his team then survived the last half hour with ten men to beat Panathinaikos 1-0 at a packed Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus. The result in round six of the Stoiximan Super League handed Panathinaikos their first league defeat of the season and pulled Olympiacos to within two points of their rivals, as to10.gr reported.

If you are new to Greek football, this is the one they call the derby of the eternal enemies: Piraeus against Athens, red and white against green, two clubs with more than a century of history and a fan base that stretches from the neighborhoods of Athens to Melbourne, Toronto and my old corner of Queens. It was the first meeting of the season between the two, and if you want the long backstory on the home side, we have a history of Olympiacos that covers how the club got here.

Imanol Alguacil's Olympiacos came out exactly as expected, pressing Panathinaikos high and forcing mistakes around their own box. Chiquinho tested Inaki Pena with a low shot in the fourth minute, Kostas Fortounis could not punish a defensive slip a minute later, and Marius Mouandilmadji sent a header over the bar after a Fortounis free kick. By the 25th minute, to10.gr counted three Olympiacos shots to none for the visitors.

Panathinaikos, coached by Jakob Neestrup, finally found a way through in the 29th minute. Vicente Taborda slipped the ball wide to Davide Calabria, whose cutback found Andrews Tetteh, and his flicked backheel was gathered by Olympiacos goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. It was a neat move, and for long stretches it was also the best the green side could manage.

The goal came from a set piece. Fortounis swung in a free kick from the left, Tetteh could not get a clean clearance on it, Remo Freuler nodded the loose ball into the captain's path and Retsos struck it first time and hard, as Sports Talk Florida described it. Growing up around Boston we would have called that a hockey goal: a scrappy start and one very clean finish. Karaiskakis, as you can imagine, did not care about the style points.

Olympiacos kept coming after halftime. A direct Fortounis free kick drifted just wide in the 52nd minute, and three minutes later Freuler, unmarked at the back post after a corner, headed narrowly off target. Panathinaikos answered in the 64th minute when substitute Anass Salah-Eddine drove a low shot toward the corner, and Ortega got down well to keep it out.

Then the night changed. Manolis Saliakas was booked in the 63rd minute and, three minutes later, picked up a second yellow for a challenge on Santino Andino near the touchline, leaving Olympiacos with ten men. The match was run by a Spanish crew led by referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez, who showed a long list of yellow cards to both sides. to10.gr pointed out that he had let a similar moment with an already booked Andino go earlier, but also judged it a derby without truly difficult calls. Where you land on that one probably depends on the color of your scarf.

What followed was the part Olympiacos fans will talk about all week. Imanol made his changes, sending on Roman Yaremchuk among others, and his team dropped into a compact shape that left Panathinaikos looking for gaps that were not there. Azzedine Ounahi shot wide in the 76th minute and Rick van Drongelen headed wide from a corner in the 86th. Neestrup threw on Levi Garcia, Cyriel Dessers and Adriano Jagusic, but the clear chance never came.

Retsos was the obvious player of the match. Beyond the goal, to10.gr credited him with 89 percent passing accuracy, eight individual duels won and 17 defensive actions, which is a full shift by any standard. Freuler, who set up the goal and nearly scored one of his own, deserves a mention too.

Imanol sounded pleased but in no mood for a parade. "We lived the derby and we won it. We are very happy. But we cannot stay on this for much longer," he said after the match, as quoted by in.gr (translated from Greek). "Until the point we went down to ten players, we showed great concentration. Defensively we did not let Panathinaikos string four passes together."

Neestrup, who suffered his first defeat as Panathinaikos coach, did not hide behind the red card. "I think we deserved to lose. It was a closed game. We did not perform as we can and as we should, both at eleven against eleven and at eleven against ten," he told Magenta TV, per Gazzetta (translated from Greek). "We were the second best team today and we have to admit that." That is about as honest as a coach gets after this fixture, and it should earn him some patience.

The win was Olympiacos' third league victory over Panathinaikos in a row, following two in last season's playoffs, according to to10.gr. Panathinaikos stay top on 15 points, but the table has turned into a traffic jam, with AEK (3-0 winners over OFI on Saturday) and PAOK, who host Kalamata on Monday, right in the mix. Even club president Evangelos Marinakis got in on the celebrations with a video call to the dressing room, Sports Talk Florida reported, citing Ta Nea.

Next up, Olympiacos travel to Panaitolikos and Panathinaikos host Asteras Aktor, both on Sunday, October 18. Here is my measured take: six rounds in, nobody wins or loses a title in October. But Olympiacos showed they can suffer and still win a big game, and Panathinaikos learned that being top of the table and being the better team on the night are two different things. Both lessons will matter come spring.

Image: Olympiacos F.C. crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).