Panathinaikos will play Spanish champion Barcelona, Danish side FC Copenhagen and Rubin Kazan of Russua in soccer’s Champions League following yesterday’s draw.
The Greek champions will begin their campaign on September 14th or 15.th.
Panathinaikos which is ranked 39th, were the weakest team in Pot Two and would have been happy to avoid some of the other second seeded teams like Real Madrid, Roma, Benfica and Marseille.
Instead The Greens will face FC Copenhagen who won the Danish Superliga last season and have former PAO striker Dame N’Doye in their ranks. They will also play against Russian champions Rubin Kazan who have a multinational squad that includes Nigerian forward Obafemi Martins.
The games against Barcelona are sure to be the most captivating. The Greens have played the Spanish giants twice before in the Champions League; in 2001-2 and 2005-6 seasons.
In most recent encounters PAO held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw in Athens but succumbed to a 5-0 defeat in Catalonia.
However it is the games in April 2002 that Greens fans will remember most when Greece was coached by Uruguayan Sergio Markarian and came close to knocking Barca out in the quarter finals.
Having won their initial group which included Arsenal, the Greens came second behind Real Madrid in the next group stage to set up a tie with Barcelona.
An Angelos Basinas penalty in the closing stages gave the Greens a 1-0 win in Athens on April 3. Six days later the Greek team was estatic as Michalis Konstantinou gave them an early lead at the Camp Nou. Although two goals from Luis Enrique and one from Javier Saviola meant that the Spaniards won the game 3-1 and went through to the semis, where they lost to Real.
The full draw:
Group A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Tottenham, FC Twente
Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv
Group C: Manchester Utd, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor
Group D: FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen, Rubin Kazan
Group E: Bayern Munich, AS Roma, FC Basel, CFR Cluj
Group F: Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina
Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre
Group H: Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, SC Braga, FK Partisan
(source: sport in greece)
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