Unfair sending off, scandal, bad referee robbed us of a chance, complains Panathinaikos

Slavia managed the first match of the third round of the Conference League against Panathinaikos perfectly, winning 2:0, practically not letting the opponent into any chances and preparing a promising position for the rematch. However, the Greek team is unable to cope with the referee’s decision.

Panathinaikos relied on a solid defensive approach and it was clear from the start that they wanted to take a draw from Eden, ideally a goalless draw, and decide the game at home.

It looked like that for a long time, the Greek team didn’t get any chances, but neither did Slavia, although they had the optical superiority.

In the 40th minute, Panathinaikos’ first hint came when Sebastian Palacios broke free beautifully in the middle of the pitch and made his way to the whitewash, where he was stopped by Ousou with a clean slide. However, head referee Ruddy Buquet deemed the Argentine’s fall to be simulation and showed him a yellow card.

And since it was the second, Palacios had to be ordered off the field. Panathinaikos players immediately descended on the referee, with Perez receiving a yellow for protesting and a member of the management team seeing red.

And the anger was transferred to the internet. Panathinaikos didn’t choose any calm assessment of the match, but they gave the feeling of injustice a proper outlet.

“French referee Buquet unfairly sent off Palacios and deprived Panathinaikos of a chance to create something against Slavia,” the Greek side wrote on its official website.

“A bad French referee named Ruddy Buquet made it difficult for Panathinaikos to return to the European Cup after five years. The unacceptable decision made it impossible for Panathinaikos to play on a level playing field and get something positive out of the match. He sent off Palacios with a scandalous decision, Slavia took advantage of our players’ irritation and scored in five minutes,” complains the official Panathinaikos website.

And on Twitter he added. “Shame. Refereeing at local league level,” wrote the official Panathinaikos account.

Not a word about the fact that Panathinaikos practically did not threaten Slavia, that on shots the home team won 17:3, of which only one attempt by the guests was on target. In addition, the Greek team mentions the situation as having played the whole match shorthanded, while due to Eduardo’s exclusion in the 54th minute they played shorthanded for only 12 minutes, after which the forces were equal again.

However, the 10-on-10 game was much more to the liking of Slavia, who were happy to take advantage of more space and push the opponent, to whom they could have added more goals. Panathinaikos, however, lives in the fact that it was robbed and feels a great injustice.

Source: Panathinaikos