Sides set for silent crowd

Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 by PA

Panathinaikos will find an empty Stadion Dinamo awaiting them in Romania as they seek to bounce back from a home defeat to Galatasaray against Dinamo Bucuresti.

The hosts were ordered to play two matches behind closed doors after crowd trouble caused the abandonment of their play-off first leg against Slovan Liberec when they were trailing 2-0 with two minutes remaining.

They were also fined US dollars 72,000 and forfeited the clash 3-0, forcing them to win the second leg 3-0 and triumph 9-8 on penalties to reach the group stage, where they began with a 1-0 win at Sturm Graz.

Club president Cristian Borcea told the club website ahead of the Pana clash: "It is inexcusable, what happened in Stadionul Dinamo.

"When the supporters behaved in this vicious manner, I was the first to demand sanctions. Somebody must take drastic action.

"I am curious to see what measures are now taken against those concerned in this hooliganism."

The lack of atmosphere will hardly help a Dinamo side bidding to end a winless run of five European home games since a 2-1 success against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage.

However, they hammered Pana 8-1 on aggregate in the second round of the 1989-90 Cup Winners' Cup in the two clubs' previous meeting.

Henk ten Cate's side, for their part, go into the match on the back of successive Greek Super League wins over Aris Salonika and AEK Athens since their Turkish setback, and having won their first five games to top the domestic table.

France striker Djibril Cisse serves the final instalment of a suspension reduced on appeal to two games after he was sent off in the play-off second leg against Atletico Madrid, while Stergos Marinos, Filipos Darlas and Nikos Spiropoulos have all undergone treatment for injuries.

Ten Cate said: "It will be a difficult match. Dinamo will be looking for a second win - they will work hard in order to beat us and they are as good as Galatasaray from a technical viewpoint.

"But we want to qualify from the group and for this it is vital to win in Bucharest."