Groundhog Day in Greece as Motherwell crash out

Well faced an uphill battle against Panathinaikos after losing the home leg 2-0 last week.

Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Charalampos Mavrias, both of whom scored in the first leg, put the tie beyond any doubt after half-time before Ibrahim Sissoko sealed an emphatic  victory – 3-0 on the night and 5-0 on aggregate.

McCall said: “It was pretty much the same game to the first one in Scotland.

“Christodoulopoulos scored a great goal from a direct free-kick – however, in Scotland the referees wouldn’t give this foul.

“Moreover, they scored the same goal while they counter-attacked.

“Then it was logical that the heat affected my players. I am satisfied only with our first half.”

McCall was asked about the atmosphere of a match played in front of 27,000 fans.

He said: “I think that because of the distance between the fans and the pitch it was hard to make things difficult or to affect the players as it happens in Scotland. The atmosphere was warm but not hostile –  something which was good for Panathinaikos.”

The Motherwell manager would not be surprised if Panathinaikos made their way into the group stages of this  season’s Champions League.

He added: “They have  chances to win the next games.

“They have good players and especially good defenders in their roster, but obviously it  depends who they will be  playing against.”