UEFA Europa League / 3rd Qualifying Round / First Tie
Date: Thursday, July 27, 2017
Kick-off: 10:30 pm. AZT
Referee: Juan Martinez Munuera (Spain)
Assistant referees: Diego Barbero Sevilla (Spain), Cesar Manuel Noval Font (Spain)
Fourth official: Mario Melero Lopez  (Spain)
Referee observer: Lesli Irvin (North Ireland)
UEFA delegate: Yanis Mejeckis (Latvia)
Venue: Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, Athens
Goal: Gilyerme Molins, 37 (pen.)
Booking: Vitaliy Vernydub, 42’
Stoppage time: 1st Half: 0 m. / 2nd Half: 3 m.

Gabala lost to Panathinaikos with 1:0 in the first tie within the 3rd Qualifying Round of the UEFA EL in Athens, Greece.

The home side started faster making quick inroads into the Gabala defense from the right and left. But the visiting defenders held on. Going more into the game, Roman Grigorchuk’s red-black team balanced the game even setting up threats. Filip Ozobic kicked from out of the box but saw his effort denied by the opponent keeper. Panathinaikos regained their the lead through some more pulsating attacks but our Dmytro Bezotosniy held on clear.

At times of opponent attacks, the ball hit our lgar Gurbanov’s hand before penalty by Gilyerme Molins opened the scoring in the favor of Athens club – 1:0. The goal prompted Panathinaikos more into the attacks that ended with a yellow card charged to Vitaliy Vernydub.

The match restarted by mutual attacks and Bezotosniy gave a great save to his teammates deflecting an opponent’s from a lose-range shot. Shortly after, Vojislav Stankovic denied the Greek side’s promising kick.

Dave Bulthuis’s superb cross found Dion Malone in a promising position but the latter saw his effort passed wide. The hosts could have gone one more ahead but Gabala’s defense line and Bezotosniy held on. At times, the post also saved us from the second goal.

The return match is fixed to next Thursday, August 3 to be held in Baku.

Panathinaikos Line-up:
99. Odisseas Vlachodimos
7. Omri Altman
(6. Christos Donis, 87)
8. Gilyerme Molins
(18. Lusiano, 70)
10. Zeka (C)
17. Robin Lod
21. Dmitres Korbelis
23. Niklas Hult
26. Dmitrios Kolovetsios
31. Rodrigo Moledo
39. Anastasios Chatzigiovanis
(11. Brayan Kabezas, 70)
78. Usman Kulibali

BENCH:
27. Konstantinos Kotsaris
5. Nuno Reys
41. Stefanos Evangelo
49. Sotiris Pispas
COACH: Marinos Ozounidis

Gabala Line-up:
22. Dmytro Bezotosniy
3. Vojislav Stankovic
9. Bagaliy Dabo
12. Andy Halliday
14. Javid Huseynov (C)
15. Vitaliy Vernydub
16. Dion Malone
(45. Famoussa Kone, 76)
18. Ilgar Gurbanov
19. Filip Ozobic
21. Dave Bulthuis
28. Steeven Joseph-Monroz

BENCH: 
23. Agil Mammadov
4. Elvin Jamalov
5. Rasim Ramaldanov
8. Gismat Aliyev
11. Asif Mammadov
34. Urfan Abbasov
COACH: Roman Grigorchuk