Memphis Depay made a goalscoring return to the PSV Eindhoven line up but it wasn’t enough to see off Panathinaikos who scored late on to claim a 1-1 draw in the Europa League.
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Depay had been out for five weeks after suffering an injury against PEC Zwolle last month, but the winger was thrown straight back into the starting line-up for the tie against Panathinaikos.
The decision was instantly rewarded as Depay, who struck the crossbar with a free kick early on, opened the scoring on the stroke of half time. The move started from a Panathinaikos corner, and after a swift counter attack Depay was played through on goal by Luuk de Jong, and after rounding Luke Steele the winger slotted into the empty net.
PSV dominated the game in the first half and throughout the second but failed to kill their opponents off with Jetro Willems, De Jong, and Depay’s second half replacement Florian Jozefzoon all squandering good chances to net a second goal
Panathinaikos had barely threatened Remko Pasveer in the PSV goal, but with three minutes remaining the Greek side drew level through Nikos Karelis, who tapped in on the rebound after Pasveer had saved Mladen Petric’s close range header. PSV were then reduced to ten men in the final minute as Jeffrey Bruma was shown his second yellow card.
A frustrating night for Phillip Cocu’s side, but they remain 2nd in the group with three matches still to play. In the groups other game Dinamo Moscow beat Estoril 2-1 to maintain their perfect start and move five points ahead of PSV.
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