Recently Tom Tsinas of Search Engine People and myself entered into a little bet over a football (soccer) game where the loser would produce a blog post on their site about the victors favourite team.
The teams involved in this shoot out was my beloved Glasgow Rangers and Toms Greek tormentors known as Panathinaikos. It was staged in the UEFA Cup and both teams were part of the last 32 left in the competition.
The teams play each other home and away and the first leg was at Ibrox Park, the home of Rangers. 50,000 plus fans watched the Panathinaikos goalkeeper make wonder save after wonder save to finish the game 0-0. To say I was nervous about our trip to Greece was an understatement. Scottish teams don’t travel well. And the Panathinaikos stadium is a very imposing environment to play in.
Both Tom and myself had been winding each other up on StumbleUpon, sending each other pages with underlying messages about the others football team. It was all in good fun.
The match in Greece got off to the worst possible start, with the Panathinaikos skipper scoring a wonder goal. Then Rangers were run ragged, wave after wave of Panathinaikos attacks thwarted by staunch Rangers defending and a large slice of luck. The crowd were getting more hostile as well, turning up the volume, I don’t know what they were chanting but I had had enough.
As soon as half-time came I switched the tv off. There was no-way I was watching my team get pummeled. Later that night, around 10pm, 3 hours after the match finished did I dare venture to find out the score. I almost jumped out my chair when I saw it finished 1-1, somehow Rangers had managed to hold off Panathinaikos and then scored a goal with barely seconds to go. A score draw meant we were through. Scoring away from home counts as double in European competitions.
Tom messaged me, stating that as the game ended in a draw we should both do a post. No worries I thought. Hence this post. I wonder if this could be something that may catch on – betting for blog posts – who knows!
I have embedded highlights of the match if anyone is interested in seeing it, the Panathinaikos captain’s goal is something else. But wee Novo’s goal for Rangers was just so much better, don’t you agree Tom?
