OFI and Panathinaikos European soccer wins, Digi Mart USA News: OFI and Panathinaikos gave Greek soccer two European victories on Thursday, with OFI downing host Hapoel Beer Sheva in Romania for the Europa League and the Greens seeing CSKA Sofia off in Athens for the Conference League.
The Irakleio team beat Hapoel 2-0 at Bucharest, where the Israeli team hosts its European games. The players of coach Christos Kontis played a clever game, absorbing the fruitless pressure of the hosts and scoring twice from set pieces.
OFI struck on either side of half-time, with Achilleas Poungouras giving the Cretan side the lead shooting from close range after a free kick from the right on the second minute of time added-on to the first half. Then Taxi Fountas doubled the Greek Cup holders’ advantage on the 56th with a direct free kick that tossed the Hapoel net.
OFI has now got six points from four games, looking good on the 16th place. Olympiakos is sixth, following its 0-0 draw at Rennes on Wednesday.
Panathinaikos defeated CSKA Sofia 2-1 and extended its perfect record in the group stage of the Conference League. The Greens led with Davide Calabria on the 41st, shooting home after a delightful back-flick by Vicente Taborda.
The visitors quickly equalized as Dinis Almeida scored after a corner kick from the right. However Taborda switched from provider to scorer in the second half, as he hit the ball with his stomach, following an Andreas Tetteh cross, to score the winner on the 68th minute.
Panathinaikos is now second on the table, being one of the four teams with three wins out of three.
