Konstantinos Mavropanos played 90 minutes on Tuesday as FC Nurnberg drew 2-2 away to SSV Jahn Regensburg.

Konstantinos Mavropanos goes for the ball with FC Nürnberg (Photo via FCN.de)
Konstantinos Mavropanos goes for the ball with FC Nürnberg (Photo via FCN.de)

On Tuesday, Mavropanos made his third start for Nurnberg since the pandemic shutdown. The 2. Bundesliga club are certainly relying on him, as he hasn’t missed a minute of football since the comeback earlier this month.

The game started well too, as Nurnberg took an early lead. The hosts pegged them back to 1-1 just before half-time, but there wasn’t much Mavropanos could do about the goal from Andreas Albers Nielsen.

Unfortunately, you couldn’t say the same when SSV Jahn Regensburg took the lead in the second half.

Just three minutes after the break, Nielsen took a shot from the edge of the box. Nurnberg goalkeeper Mathenia made a save, but he put it back into the danger area. After a scramble, it fell to Sebastian Stolze to finish.

The problem was that Stolze was Mavropanos’ man. The Arsenal loanee was caught ball-watching after the initial shot from Nielsen, appealing for offside as Stolze found the space to score.

Nurnberg did at least manage to find a last-minute equaliser, thanks to an impressive diving-header own goal. It also wasn’t as if Mavropanos had a poor game all around. He made five clearances, blocked a shot, made three interceptions, two tackles and won eight of his 13 aerial duels.

It’s the same thing we were saying about Mavropanos last weekend, though. He’s great when asked to make a challenge, or win a header, or play a long pass. The question marks are more around his positioning and awareness.

For a young player coming through a number of injury problems, Mavropanos does deserve some slack. If you aren’t playing regularly, it’s hard to work on your team chemistry in defence. That’s what this loan should help him with.