panathinaikos make most of lead published: wednesday 6 august 2008, 23.38cet fc dinamo tbilisi 0-0 panathinaikos fc (agg: 0-3) a goalless draw against ten-man dinamo was enough to guide the greek club into the third qualifying round.
by soso kotoreishvili
a goalless draw at fc dinamo tbilisi was enough for panathinaikos fc to ease into uefa champions league third qualifying round, where they will met ac sparta praha.
comfortable progression the greek side's comprehensive 3-0 first-leg victory gave them a comfortable advantage heading into the decider and despite the georgian champions creating a number of first-half chances, they could not convert and then had nikoloz pirtskhalava sent off 15 minutes from time.
early opportunities the hosts were missing team captain david digmelashvili and playmaker georgi merebashvili through injury but started brightly with striker ilija spasojević being denied by away goalkeeper mario galinović in the early stages. then georgi nergadze missed a great headed chance from a corner while david odikadze went close twice from distance.
reinforcement panathinaikos coach henk ten cate introduced gilberto after the break to reinforce his midfield and the move shored up the visitors with dinamo having few efforts on goal. pirtskhalava was then dismissed for two bookable offences, the second a foul on giorgos karagounis, which effectively ended the home side's hopes and despite having a couple more half chances, they could not take advantage allowing panathinaikos to progress and set up a tie against sparta, who they defeated twice in the 2001/02 second group stage.
