beaten twice, panathinaikos fc have no room for error against fc rubin kazan and djibril cissé warns that with another loss they "can wave goodbye to the champions league".
with djibril cissé having taken greece by storm last season it was perhaps no surprise to see the french ranks swell at panathinaikos fc over the summer.
cissé scored 23 times in 28 league games to help the greens to the title and after he had flown the flag so successfully for his country, panathinaikos were quick to strengthen their ties with france when it came to preparing for their uefa champions league campaign.
forward sidney govou and defender jean-alain boumsong joined from olympique lyonnais and midfielder damien plessis from liverpool fc. former ogc nice centre-back cédric kanté, a malian international born in strasbourg, was already a fixture of athens' francophone community.
"integrating is a bit easier when there are other frenchmen, especially when there are frenchmen who have already experienced life in the greek championship," boumsong said. "so djibril and cédric have made it easier for us to integrate, but you still need a bit of time to adapt."
not that the french contingent keep themselves to themselves. "we have an affinity which comes together naturally," boumsong adds. "i'm more at ease with a frenchman because they speak the same language as me and we have the same habits.
"but as a rule, we don't keep to our corner, it's quite a cosmopolitan group, we all mix. there's a large greek contingent in the squad, but most of them speak english and they're very open to sharing their experiences with foreigners."
govou, 31, made the switch after 11 seasons at lyon where he helped the club to seven successive titles between 2002 and 2008. he cites "a big sporting challenge with the guarantee of challenging for the domestic title and of playing in the champions league" as his reasons for joining.
panathinaikos having already lost to fc barcelona and fc københavn in group d, however, and their uefa champions league lives are on the line when they face fc rubin kazan on wednesday. "you win you get an extra life; lose and you can wave goodbye to the champions league," said cissé. "[against københavn] we didn't play as a team. we were too spread out, there wasn't enough cohesion to our play."
govou, meanwhile, is calling for calm. "we had a similar situation at lyon in 2008 when we lost our first two champions league games, against barcelona in barcelona, then against rangers at home, 3-0, and we still managed to qualify so that gives me hope.
"maybe it's not comparable, but it shows that in football anything's possible until it's mathematically finished. we still have a chance. we're a good team and we have some very good players. sometimes we lack composure when the matches heat up, but that aside we've got enough to put in a good showing in the european cup."
1. fc barcelona...3...2...1...0...8...2...6...7 2. fc københavn...3...2...0...1...3...2...1...6 3. fc rubin kazan...3...0...2...1...1...2...-1...2 4. panathinaikos fc...3...0...1...2...1...7...-6...1
neither side could muster enough chances to break the deadlock in athens with a goalless draw doing group d's bottom two sides no favours.
panathinaikos fc remain bottom of uefa champions league group d after fc rubin kazan held their section rivals to a 0-0 draw in a tight encounter in athens.
goalscoring opportunities were at a premium though kurban berdyev's visitors posed a greater attacking threat. sergei kornilenko went close on several occasions while djibril cissé cut an isolated figure up front for the hosts, yet both sides could have won it in a frantic finale uncharacteristic of the contest as a whole. panathinaikos now have a mountainous task to salvage their campaign after collecting one point from three matches. rubin remain third with two points, three behind fc københavn.
having lost to fc barcelona and fck, panathinaikos were eager to get off the mark in the section and they began brightly, controlling the early possession. shorn of the suspended gilberto silva and injury victims sidney govou, sotiris ninis and sebastian leto, however, the greens struggled to fashion chances. it was not until the 17th minute that they threatened when stergos marinos' dangerous cross was diverted over by a combination of cissé and césar navas.
rubin's first opening came seven minutes later when kornilenko headed bebars natcho's corner narrowly wide. berdyev's team grew in confidence as the half unfolded and panathinaikos had loukas vyntra to thank after he diverted kornilenko's goal-bound shot behind, with home keeper alexandros tzorvas then making a smart save from alan kasaev's strike from distance.
panathinaikos's best hopes of a goal seemed to rest on the right flank, and cissé missed an opportunity to break the deadlock when he headed vyntra's inviting centre wide a minute before half-time. nikos nioplias sought to inject some pace after the interval, introducing both lazaros christodoulopoulos and damien plessis. but it was the visitors who remained more menacing going forward, tzorvas again showing excellent reflexes to push a kasaev shot around the post on 64 minutes.
cissé thought he had done the trick for the hosts 13 minutes from time but the former liverpool fc striker was flagged offside when he headed christodoulopoulos' free-kick beyond sergei ryzhikov. nioplias handed 16-year-old midfielder charis mavrias his competition debut – the second youngest player in uefa champions league history – but despite late chances for aleksandr ryazantsev and vyntra, the breakthrough did not come. it left the home fans, and both teams, disappointed.
yedekler: daniel fernandes (gk), giourkas seitaridis, giorgos ioannidis, elini dimoutsos
teknik direktör: nikos nioplias (gre)
rubin: sergei ryzhikov (gk), cristian ansaldi, césar navas, aleksandr ryazantsev, alan kasaev (dk. 86 petr bystrov), christian noboa (c), vitali kaleshin, salvatore bocchetti, gökdeniz karadeniz (dk. 65 obafemi martins), bebars natcho, sergei kornilenko
yedekler: giedrius arlauskis (gk), oleg kuzmin, aleksandr orekhov, carlos eduardo
teknik direktör: kurban berdyev (rus)
sarı kartlar: dk. 90+1 simão (panathinaikos) dk. 7 gökdeniz karadeniz, dk. 78 christian noboa (c) (rubin)
rubin kazan held panathinaikos to a 0-0 draw in the champions league on wednesday, with the russian team coming closest to breaking the deadlock.
the visitors started off the match with a cautious lineup and heavy tackles to stifle the game, but steadily took control in the group d match.
sergei kornilenko had a shot cleared just off the line by defender loukas vyntra in the 27th minute, while panathinaikos goalkeeper alexandros tzorvas dived to block a powerful shot from alan kasaev 10 minutes later.
kasaev had another shot on goal blocked by tzorvas in the 63rd minute.
ın the 76th, panathinaikos striker djibril cisse beat goalkeeper sergei rykhikov with a header, but german referee manuel graefe ruled the effort offside.
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