Gers In The Schitz

Feb 10 2008 Gordon Waddell At Apostolos Nikolaidis

Hotshot Tunes Up For Ibrox Crunch With Slick Free-Kick

PANATHINAIKOS 1

VERIA FC 0

THEY call him the Austrian Beckham - and Andreas Ivanschitz sent Rangers a trademarked warning as he kept Panathinaikos on the trail of the Greek title.

The midfielder grabbed the only goal of a turgid dogfight with a sensational 25-yard free-kick to push Pana four points clear at the top.

And watching Rangers spy Ewan Chester will have the 24-year-old at the top of his dossier of dangermen for Walter Smith to mull over tomorrow morning.

How much more he will have learned from this mission is anyone's guess though.

Panathinaikos' mean green machine of a defence kept their 19th clean sheet of the season against a Veria side whose only ambition was to cling on for a point.

And that meant few hints about their weak spots at the back - something Rangers will have to work out for themselves on Wednesday night.

The atmosphere last night was also completely alien compared to the return leg Gers face here in 10 days' time.

The "Welcome to Hell" reputation of the graffiti-strewn, ramshackle Apostolis Nikolaidis Stadium was nowhere in sight.

No flares, no noise, none of the club's infamous "Gate 13" psychos. No crowd full stop in fact. The 16,000 seats were barely a third filled - it was quieter than hell's waiting room.

Although the weather maybe had something to do with that. The Athens temperature had plummeted to around three degrees and the wind drove a biting rain through the air that would have kept even the hardiest of fans away from the uncovered ends.

Anyone hoping Glasgow was going to be a culture shock come Wednesday would have to revise their thinking. This was perfect preparation.

Whether the game was is more open to debate.

Coach Jose Peseiro lived up to his rotation reputation, making five changes to the team which Ian Durrant saw beat Asteras Tripoli 2-0 last weekend.

The most surprising omission was 15-goal top scorer Dimitrios Salpingidis - or Salpi-gol as the fans know him.

Not that it left them short of international quality as Greek hitman Dimitrios Papadopoulos played right up top with on-loan Portuguese enigma Helder Postiga floating just off him.

And with Angola's African Nations superstar Manucho due in this week on loan from Manchester United, they have enough power, pace and guile to frighten anyone.

Having said that, they could have played all four of them in the first half here and still not broken down the red wall Veria built along the 18-yard line.

The relegation strugglers started in a 5-4-1 that rapidly became a 9-1 at times.

And for 71 minutes their game plan frustrated the living daylights out of Panathinaikos.

Peseiro pulled a surprise by ditching his regular 4-4-2 line-up for a 4-2-3-1 to batter through the impenetrable force field on the edge of the box.

And despite the feeling that it was going to be easier to go round rather than through, their two best chances came when they did pick holes in the middle.

First Ivanschitz came inside from the left to feed Postiga and the former Porto and Spurs man's shot curled inches past.

And on the stroke of half-time Dame N'Doye blew an even better chance when he fluffed a shot from Papadopoulos' knock down straight at the keeper.

Despite their dominance, Pana's concentration lapsed once and they almost paid the price.

Giant Gambian frontman Kamal N'Daw caught South African stopper Nasief Morris napping and only keeper Mario Galinovic's one-on-one prowess kept their clean sheet intact.

Peseiro cleary didn't like what he was seeing and at half-time Papadopoulos was hooked.

Former Inter Milan and Benfica idol Giorgios Karagounis came on in midfield with N'Doye moving from wide right to partner Postiga up front.

Again though Veria kept the chokehold on the league leaders.

Only a vicious cross from Panathinaikos left back Anthony Seric caused chaos as it thudded off the inside of the post.

But just when it looked like Veria had what it takes to hang on for a point, they blundered.

When you know your opposition has a dead-ball killer in the ranks, the last thing you do is lay one on a silver salver to him.

Miha Kline chopped down Ezequiel Gonzalez 25 yards out.

Ivanschitz sized it up and curled a sweet left-foot strike into the top corner. Rangers can't say they haven't been warned.