There are nights when one swing of a boot decides everything, and at the OPAP Arena on Tuesday evening it belonged to Razvan Marin. His first-half free kick, arrowed into the top right corner, settled a taut contest and handed AEK Athens a 1-0 win over LASK Linz that carried more weight than its slender margin suggests. In the Champions League, three points banked early are worth their weight in gold.

AEK did not need to be spectacular. They needed to be precise, patient and ruthless when the chance arrived, and in Marin they had a man capable of supplying exactly that. The moment came in the 21st minute and it proved enough to keep the visitors at arm's length for the remainder of the contest.

For LASK Linz, it was a chastening introduction to the campaign. They arrived with hope and left with nothing, undone by a single flash of quality and unable to conjure the response their efforts perhaps deserved. Football, at this level, punishes the smallest lapse, and one moment of brilliance was all it took to leave them empty-handed.

The decisive strike

The goal itself was a thing of clean, controlled beauty. When AEK won a free kick within range, Marin stood over the ball with the calm of a man who had rehearsed the outcome a thousand times. His right foot met the ball sweetly and sent it curling beyond the reach of everything in its path, nestling into the top right corner before the goalkeeper could so much as adjust his feet.

It was the kind of finish that draws a stadium to its feet and drains the belief from opponents in a single breath. The OPAP Arena roared its approval, and from that instant the tenor of the evening was set. AEK had their lead, and with it a platform from which to dictate the terms of the contest.

Set pieces so often decide these tight European nights, and here the pattern held true. Marin's execution turned a promising position into a tangible advantage, and the rest of the AEK side rallied around it, determined to protect what their talisman had provided. A goal of that calibre demanded to be honoured, and his teammates duly obliged.

Holding the line

A one-goal lead is a fragile thing, and the hour that followed asked serious questions of AEK's resolve. They answered them with discipline. Every clearance, every challenge, every retreat into shape spoke of a team that understood the value of what it was guarding. There was no panic, only the grim, professional business of seeing a job through.

LASK Linz pressed for a way back into the match, but the door remained firmly shut. AEK's defenders read the danger, closed the spaces and refused the visitors the clear sight of goal they craved. When you keep a clean sheet in the Champions League, you give yourself the right to win any match, and AEK protected theirs with a stubborn, collective will.

By the closing stages, the home crowd could sense the finish line drawing near. Each passing minute tightened the grip on the result, and when the whistle finally sounded, the relief and the joy poured out in equal measure. One goal, no reply, three points. In this competition, that is a night's work well done.

Table and form

The victory lifts AEK Athens to second in the standings on three points, their record reading one win from one, a single goal scored and none conceded. It is a flawless opening line in the ledger, the sort of start that breeds confidence and buys a team a little room to breathe as the campaign unfolds. A clean sheet and a win is the platform every side dreams of laying down.

For LASK Linz, the picture is bleaker. They sit 36th, still searching for their first point, with a record of no wins from one and a solitary goal conceded against nothing scored. The margins were fine, but the table does not deal in sympathy, and they must now regroup quickly before the mountain grows any steeper.

The difference between the two positions is stark, yet it hinges on the finest of details. One free kick separated these teams, and that is the unforgiving arithmetic of European football, where reputations count for little and the scoreboard counts for everything. AEK will savour the standing; LASK will resolve to climb from the foot of it.

What comes next

AEK Athens will take enormous heart from this. To open a Champions League campaign with a win and a clean sheet is to announce intent, and in Marin they possess a match-winner capable of unlocking the tightest of contests. The challenge now is consistency, the relentless demand of a competition that rewards nobody for resting on a single result.

There is work still to do, of course. A one-goal margin flatters nobody's dominance, and AEK will know that sterner tests await as the group takes shape. But they have the points, they have the belief, and they have a player in form. That is a foundation any side would gladly build upon.

LASK Linz, meanwhile, must rediscover their edge in front of goal and turn effort into reward. The talent to compete was evident; the ruthlessness was not. If they can find that missing ingredient, their campaign need not be defined by this defeat. For now, though, the night belonged entirely to AEK Athens and to the man whose right foot decided it.