Last Wednesday, former Dynamo Kyiv head coach Mircea Lucescu attended the return match of the Greek Cup 1/2 final between Panathinaikos and PAOK, which is coached by his son, Razvan Lucescu.
Мирча Луческу. Фото — Ю. ЮрьевThe match went into overtime with the score 1-0 in favour of PAOK (Panathinaikos won the first match with this result) and the latter managed to score the second goal in the 105th minute of the game. However, Panathinaikos made an incredible comeback, scoring in the 9th (!) minute of the final half.
So the fight in this meeting came down to a penalty shootout. In this football lottery, PAOK were ahead at first, but in the end Panathinaikos managed to win the shootout 6-5.
Commenting on the twists and turns of this match, Lucescu Sr. drew parallels with the dramatic Ukrainian Cup final of the 2014/15 season, in which Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv met. In that game, the rivals failed to score either in regulation time or extra time. In the penalty shootout, the Pitmen were ahead at first (3:1), but Dynamo eventually won 5:4.
"Such scenarios happen in football. The match could have ended at least four or five times. Panathinaikos fans were very lucky. They were so happy today, as if they had won the championship.
In my career there have been many similar situations. I remember the Ukrainian Cup final with Dynamo Kyiv, when I was coaching Shakhtar. In the penalty shootout we led 3-1, and everyone thought that everything was decided in our favour and we would soon get the trophy in our hands. But then three of our players failed to convert the penalty (Taison, Yaroslav Rakitskiy and Oleksandr Gladkiy - editor's note), and we lost. It's not easy at all," Lucescu said after the Panathinaikos vs PAOK match.
