A timely equaliser has ensured Olympiacos enter the second leg of their Europa League tie with SK Slovan Bratsilava on level terms, though they may regret failing once again to maximise their home ground advantage.

The Piraeus giants fought their way to a 1-1 stalemate at “Karaiskakis” against the Slovak champions on Friday morning (AEST) in the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie.

The visitors pounced on an error by centre half Sokratis Papastathopoulos to take a shocking lead via winger Andre Green (63′), who expertly buried his one-on-one opportunity into the bottom right.

Olympiacos launched waves of pressure until they finally broke through their opponents’ defences through super-sub Youssef El Arabi’s late corner header goal (86′), giving his side a much-needed boost going into next week’s reverse fixture.

Panathinaikos recorded a disappointing loss to SK Slavia Prague in their return to European competition, falling 2-0 away in the first leg of the Europa Conference League third qualifying round.

The Greens battled hard but it was a double blow of Sebastian Palacios’ second yellow red (40′) and a goal from Ivan Schranz following a corner (45+2′) which ended their first 45 minutes back in Europe on a sour note.

Things looked to pick up for the “Trifylli” in the second period, with defender Eduardo Santos’ second yellow (52′) equalising the number of players on the field again, before a quick attack was soon polished off by Moses Usor (56′) to give the Czechs great chances of progressing.

Aris also lost 2-0 in their away continental fixture with Maccabi Tel Aviv, capping off a poor outing for Greece’s clubs.

Djordje Jovanovic released a grounded effort into the bottom right to give the Israeli side the lead (29′).

Teammate Eran Zahavi followed suit (86′), with his shot coming from the edge of the box and going into the bottom left, to bury the game and put the Thessaloniki club in huge danger of elimination.

 

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