On the rise
PAOK put on their best performance so far in the preseason, especially in the first half, and prevailed 2-1 over FC Steaua București in Apeldoorn of the Netherlands, kicking off victoriously the second part of their summer friendlies.
The encounter was as intense as an official game. FC Steaua București players were particularly competitive, often employing unsporting means to contain their rivals.
Răzvan Lucescu applied a different philosophy than in the previous three friendly matches and conceded more playing time to his starters, as a form of physical condition test.
In the first 30 minutes of the encounter, PAOK were a joy to watch, displaying attractive football and getting a two-goal reward for it. Adelino Vieirinha netted the opener in the 5th minute with a clever direct free-kick. Omar El Kaddouri extended PAOK’s lead, when his volley from the Portuguese’s corner kick was deflected off a defender and beat Andrei Vlad.
The “Double-Headed Eagle” wasted several opportunities, but then the Romanian side took control of proceedings, without being able to bother Alexandros Paschalakis though.
The second half started just like the first ended, with Dennis Man getting on the scoreboard for Steaua, taking advantage of a defensive slip up. The Romanian side were only able to become dangerous through individual errors of PAOK players.
In the last half hour, the game pace dropped due to many substitutions in both camps. However Pedro Henrique did waste a huge opportunity to restore PAOK’s two-goal lead at stoppage time, after collecting an impressive through-ball by Léo Jabá.
The line-up of the “Double-Headed Eagle”:
Paschalakis (72′ Siampanis), Matos (72′ Kitsiou), Varela (72′ Malezas), Crespo (72′ Khacheridi), Vieirinha (72′ Balogiannis), Maurício (72′ Shakhov), Cañas (72′ Charisis), El Kaddouri (72′ Jabá), Biseswar (46′ Lamprou), Limnios (72′ Henrique), Pelkas (72′ Mystakidis).
