Panathinaikos' gamble, in the first leg of the Greek Cup's quarterfinals, did not pay off and elimination now looms as a possibility unless lost ground is made up in the return match of 5 March 2003.

Sergio Markarian played his reserves against Aigaleo, in Leoforos, and met with a 0-1 upset defeat. It was the Uruguayan's first defeat in the current season with Panathinaikos and fourth over all (Iraklis in the Greek Cup and Porto and Barcelona in last year's Champions' League).

Panathinaikos were rather dull in the first 22 minutes as Markarian played a lineup that was entirely different to the one that faced Proodeftiki in the League. The new lineup had obvious cohesion problems and the wet pitch didn't help them either.

All that changed in the 22nd minute as Lincar's performance, coupled with Pitsos' and Konstantinidis' activity on the left side, as well as Konstantinou's agility, led to several chances: a shot by Lincar in the 15th minute, efforts by Konstantinou, Lincar and Sapanis in a sustained attack in the 23rd and a near miss by Konstantinidis in the 24th.

Aigaleo reacted but Agritis was stopped by Kotsolis in the 25th minute and Chloros missed the target in the follow-up.

Panathinaikos continued their pace seeking their first goal: In the 27th minute through Vlaovic and in the 31st through Konstantinidis who hit the crossbar of Bikic's goal. The visitors threatened through counterattacks in the 36th minute and in the 38th but Kotsolis denied Chloros and Agritis respectively. The last chance of the half belonged to Sapanis whose hard shot was blocked by Bikic.
In the second half Panathinaikos were again the team that dominated however, again they stumbled on a strong Aigaleo defence.

The greens locked their opponents in their own half but failed to score, losing chances in the 55th minute (Sapanis), the 59th (Konstantinou) and the 64th through Warzycha whose shot was stopped on the line by Alexopoulos. Markarian threw one substitute after the other in the game: Gittas, in his debut, Warzycha and Kolkka but, again with no result. Instead, it was Aigaleo that scored in the 84th minute as Agritis received a long pass from his defence, sent a long cross past Kotsolis to Chloros and the latter pushed the ball into the empty goal.

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