Panathinaikos beats Sparta Prague 2-1

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Michalis Constantinou scored twice as Panathinaikos beat Sparta Prague 2-1 Wednesday to boost its chances of reaching the quarterfinals in the Champions League.

The Greek club beat Sparta 2-0 in Prague last week.

With Wednesday's result, Panathinaikos retained second place in Group C with seven points, five behind runaway leader Real Madrid, which qualified for the quarterfinals with a 2-1 win at FC Porto.

The Czech club follows in third place with three points, while Portugal's Porto, with no wins, is last with one point.

Playing before a sellout crowd of 17,000 at Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium, Panathinaikos controlled play throughout.

Constantinou put Panathinaikos ahead in the 14th minute off a long center from Jan Michaelsen. The Cypriot striker, who also scored in Prague, dribbled past two defenders before beating keeper Petr Cech.

In the 29th, Greek goalie Antonis Nikopolidis' stopped a 35-meter (yards) blast by Jin Jarosik.

Two minutes into the second period, Michaelsen again fed Constantinou, who headed in his fifth goal in 10 European matches.

The visitors fought hard for a consolation goal, and substitute Martin Klein pulled one back with a header in the 89th.

Danish referee Erik Fisker booked one Czech and three Greeks players, including Michaelsen, who will miss next week's game at Porto.

Panathinaikos hosts Real Madrid in the group's last match on March 20.

Summary

Panathinaikos 2 Sparta Prague 1 - result

Champions League second stage, Group C

Scorers:

Panathinaikos - Michalis Konstantinou 15, 47

Sparta Prague - Martin Klein 89

Halftime: 1-0

Teams:

Panathinaikos: 1-Antonis Nikopolidis, 2-Rene Henriksen, 8-Yiannis Goumas, 12-Jan Michaelsen (5-Fernando Galetto, 62), 15-Daniel Saric, 16-Sotiris Kyrgiakos, 18-Minas Pitsos (27-Robert Jarni, 75), 19-Michalis Konstantinou (11-Joonas Kolkka, 82), 20-Angelos Basinas, 21-Nikos Liberopoulos, 26-Giorgos Karagounis

Sparta Prague: 1-Petr Cech, 5-Jan Flachbart, 7-Lukas Zelenka, 8-Jiri Novotny, 9-Marek Kincl, 10-Ratislav Michalik, 14-Libor Sionkio, 20-Jiri Jarosik, 22-Tomas Cizek, 27-Radek Mynar, 28-Pavel Zavadil (13-Martin Klein, 38)

Referee: Ratislav Michalik (Slovakia)

 

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