Panathinaikos player Jean-Alain Boumsong has said that he has enough experience of playing in the Champions League to know the difficulty of overcoming a first leg defeat. Panathinaikos lost in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying rounds at the hands of the Spanish club Malaga 2-0. Only very few teams have managed to overcome a first leg defeat, which is the reason for Jean-Alain Boumsong’s pessimism ahead of the match. However, the player has said that he has utmost confidence in his team and that they will be able to overturn the deficit into a victory that will see the club into the group stages of the Champions League.

One of the main advantages of Panathinaikos in the efforts to overcome the deficit is the home support according to the defender. Due to the fact that Panathinaikos will be playing at home, the home support are really going to be up for the game despite the first leg defeat. Having the second leg at home has always been a huge advantage for teams in the Champions League. Due to his experience in this competition, Jean-Alain Boumsong knows that that tie could easily swing in favour of Panathinaikos.

“You saw the opportunities we had in the closing stages of the game. Those chances will act as a source of optimism for us on Tuesday. Let’s hope that we create more goalscoring moments at home, where we must also look to be more successful in executing our own game plan. We knew Málaga were going to try to make us run and to pull us out of position so I insisted on the fact that we had to be more aggressive,” said the defender ahead of the match. The 32-year-old is also one of the most experienced members of the squad.