PANATHINAIKOS ace Daniel Mancini may have committed the biggest blunder of the year that probably ended his team’s title hopes.
Mancini, 28, and his team-mates visited bottom of the league Lamia on Sunday in a match where the Greek giants needed the three points to maintain pressure on bitter rivals Olympiacos at the top.
Rui Vitoria’s side endured a horrendous start that saw them conceding after just four minutes by ex-Reading and Aston Villa ace Aaron Tshibola.
Panathinaikos equalised on 72 minutes with Filip Djuricic but Lamia fought back and regained the lead just six minutes later with Gustavo Furtado, who used to play for the visitors.
The Athens outfit pushed hard for another equaliser but disaster struck three minutes before full-time.
Ex-Grimsby Town ace Sebastian Ring tried to find Furtado with a through ball.
Mancini, who was playing out of position at right-back thought the ball went out for a free throw.
But Ring signalled towards Furtado that the ball was surprisingly still in play as it never went over the line, while the Panathinaikos ace was getting ready for the free throw the referee never awarded.
Furtado gained possession and broke into the box with his marker completely oblivious to what was happening.
The Lamia star tried to beat goalkeeper Bartlomiej Drągowski from a tight angle but the Poland international denied him.
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However, Mancini’s woes were about to become much worse as for some reason he decided to kick another ball into play before Furtado’s shot.
Referee Angelos Evangelou stopped the match and awarded the hosts a penalty, as per the rules, before booking the winger.
Furtado took on the spot kick and defeated Dragowski to seal only Lamia’s second win of the season.
The rules state that if another ball or object is thrown inside the pitch by another player then the referee awards a set piece for the opposing team at the spot where it landed.
Because the ball was thrown inside the Panathinaikos area where the action was taking place the ref awarded a penalty.
Furtado enjoyed quite the redemption as he was offloaded by Panathinaikos last year after going viral in a clip showing him chasing after the B team’s bus, which forgot about him and almost left him behind.
PAO are now third in the table with eight points separating them from the top.
