Lens vs Panathinaikos Prediction & Betting Tips (22 August)

For 3 seasons, RC Lens has occupied a strong place in the French football matches landscape. Frank Haise did an excellent job at the club, helped by Seko Fofana, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Lois Openda. That's good, none of them are at the club anymore. RC Lens, on the other hand, makes a point of keeping its backbone unchanged, namely in its B.Samba goal, behind Danso, Gradit and Medina. Qualified for the group stages of the Champions League, the RCL had defeated Arsenal at home 2-1, but too short to play in the 1/8 finals, however, transferred to C3 and eliminated by Fribourg. Seventh in the 51-point 2023-24 championship, Lens can validate its C4 qualification if it wins its play-off against Pana. To do this, victory is an obligation before a high-tension return to Athens in a few days. The 2024-25 RCL season began with a victory at SCO Angers 0-1 last Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 Opposite, Panathinaikos encountered difficult seasons around the 2020s. For 1 year it's still better, vice-champion of Greece in 2023, 4th last year, its return to the forefront is appreciable. For now, we can speak of a contrasting start to the season. Indeed, let's start with its very good run in Europe. After a success in the 2nd round against Botev Plovdiv 2-1/0-4, Pana shook the "Old Lady" of Ajax Amsterdam in the 3rd round. 0-1 in the first leg, 0-1 in the return to the Netherlands, all these beautiful people found themselves in overtime. At the end of an endless penalty shootout, the Greek club surrendered 12-13 where even the goalkeepers were forced to take a penalty. Now, time for the bad news for Djibril Cissé's former club, beaten in their first match against Asteras 0-1 in the Olympic stadium in Athens.

Having left for OM for 25,000,000th (+ 5,000,000th bonus), Elye Wahi (scorer against Reims) joined Canebière and will no longer wear the Sang et Or jersey. A departure for which the leaders had to prepare in view of of his performance last year and the desires of his attacker elsewhere. However, although he managed to find the opening against Angers, playing an entire season with W.Said at the forefront of the attack demonstrates a certain lack of ambition for the Artesians. Lens has also been rather cautious for the moment during this transfer window. Loaned last year, midfielder Spierings (Toulouse) and young striker Labeau-Lascary (Laval) are back while left back Chavez has been permanently recruited. However, the first mentioned is removed from the group by Still, like the midfielder Abdul Samed (undesirable). Also note the arrival of goalkeeper Koffi (Charleroi) who digitally replaces Jean-Louis Leca who ended his career last May, and that of the defender who passed through Nice, Malang Sarr (Chelsea). His arrival is supposed to prepare RC Lens for the departure of Kevin Danso, increasingly close to Bergamo. The Nantes player Petric arrived free of any contract while the striker Nzola arrived on loan from Fiorentina (3 goals, 3 assists in SA) In addition, the rather disappointing Guilavogui was loaned to the Sankt Pauli side.

We still find in this squad the indestructible Sotoca (7 goals, 6 assists), the precious Saïd (7 goals) and the very active Pereira Da Costa (4 goals, 2 assists). El-Aynaoui was supposed to join Monaco, but during the medical examination, his knee injury would have made the agreement between the two clubs void. The list of undesirable players for the Europa Conference is colossal. Panathinaikos will a priori have to do without Icelandic international Magnusson (49 salts), American international Palmer-Brown (4 salts) in the defensive register. In midfield, Baldock the Greek international (12 salts), the Albanian international Cokaj (5 salts), and Ruben Perez (35 years old) are no longer welcome. The same goes for Kleinheilser, Verbic, and Cantalapiedra offensively. Also, the starting goalkeeper Dragowski (ex-Fiorentina) is injured, as is the Slovenian international Cerin, and Andraz Sporar (8 goals last year) his compatriot. Author of 15 goals last year, Greek international Ioanidis is being courted by the biggest European teams and should stay for another year in Greece. The transfer window was colossal for the locals, with the arrivals of Tete (Galatasaray, 7,000,000), Ingason (Midjtyland, 3,000,000), Maksimovic (Getafe, free), and even Baldock (Brentford).