Take Five: How have Scottish teams fared in previous games in Athens?

Emerson scored his only goal for Rangers against Panathinaikos.SNS Group

Motherwell have travelled to Athens with their chances of making the Champions league play-off round hanging by a thread.

Despite an impressive performance in the competition debut against Panathinaikos at Fir Park last week, Stuart McCall’s side fell to a 2-0 defeat and face an uphill task to turn the tie around.

Sadly, if ‘Well are looking to history for inspiration they won’t find much to take hope from with Greece far from a happy hunting ground for Scottish clubs.

We picked out five matches from recent history to measure the size of the challenge ahead.

Panathinaikos 1-1 Rangers 2003/04 Champions League Group Stage

Back in the days when Scottish clubs qualified for the group stages of the competition, Rangers gained a draw in Athens.

Brazilian midfielder Emerson scored his only goal for the club to give the Scots the lead and they looked good to take all three points before Pantelis Konstantinidis snatched an equaliser with three minutes remaining.

The Greeks won the return match in Glasgow 3-1 with Michael Mols scoring for the hosts.

Placed in the same group as Manchester United and Bundesliga runners-up Stuttgart, Rangers finished in fourth place in the group with four points.

AEK Athens 3-0 Hearts 2006/07 Champions League third qualifying round

Having lead for 88 minutes of the home leg against AEK before losing two late goals, Hearts travelled to the Greek capital in confident mood.

Once again the Scottish Cup holders held their own before collapsing late on. Valdas Ivanauskas’ side remained in with a chance of progressing before Julio Cesar scored from the penalty spot with eleven minutes to go.

Nikolaos Liberopulos added a second before Cesar rounded things off in the final minute.

Panathinaikos 3-0 Aberdeen 2007/08 UEFA Cup, Group stage

Aberdeen fell to the same score line as fellow SPL side Hearts the previous year when they made it to the group stages of the UEFA Cup.

In a season remembered for matches against Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich, the Dons lost out in Athens on their way to finishing third in their group.

Jimmy Calderwood’s men fell behind after eleven minutes with the wonderfully named Dimitrios Papadopoulos doubling the lead. Dimitrios Salpingidis made it three minutes later to end a miserable night for the Scots.

Aberdeen followed this result up with a draw against Lokomotiv Moscow, defeat in Madrid before thumping Copenhagen to set up their clash with the German giants.

Panathinaikos 1-1 Rangers 2007/08 UEFA Cup Round of 32

This was the first knock-out step on the way to Rangers’ run to the final in Manchester.

After finishing third in a Champions League group containing Barcelona, Lyon and Stuttgart, Walter Smith’s men were one of the sides parachuted into the UEFA Cup.

Although they couldn’t find the net at Ibrox, Rangers made it through after Nacho Novo’s 81st minute goal cancelled out Ioanis Goumas’ opener.

The Ibrox side went on to beat Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon, Fiorentina before losing out to Zenit St Petersburg.

AEK Athens 1-1 Dundee United 2010/11 Europa League play-off

Having won the Scottish Cup in 2010, Dundee United’s Europa League adventure took them to Athens to face AEK.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg at Tannadice, few gave United much of a chance in Greece but they managed to gain a 1-1 draw.

Former Fulham midfielder Papa Bouba Diop, known as The Wardrobe, opened the scoring after 23 minutes. Jon Daly sparked celebrations in the away end with the equaliser after 77 minutes but they couldn’t find the one goal they needed to take the tie to extra time.

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