Pregame
Kick Off
Half Time
Goals
Penalty
Substitution
Corners
Offside
Opportunity
Barshot
Comment
Yellow Card
Second Yellow Card
Red card
Missed Penalty
PAOK drop two points at the OAKA
In football the best team does not always win. This is especially the case when only one of the team’s involved in a match is interested in playing football.
PAOK came to the ΟΑΚΑ aiming to play for a win, while AEK played to try and steal the win. Neither side managed to achieve its goal. The Union was cynical, tough, and extremely defensive.
The hosts were fortunate to score from their only meaningful chance of the game, and thereafter all they tried to do was to hold on to that lead by any means necessary. For virtually 90 minutes, AEK spent their time behind the ball, while for most of that time they were also playing in their own half.
PAOK attempted persistently to get in behind AEK from all over the pitch. From the wings with crosses, and through the middle with direct passing, the visitors pressed and created opportunities. However, PAOK could not find a route to goal until late on, and after that even missed a late chance to win it. The result in the end was that the Double-headed Eagle lost two points rather than gained one. And this match was proof of the fact that in football the best team does not always win.
Abel Ferreira’s team began brightly from the first minute, pinning the home side back in their own half. Antonio Colak, Leo Matos and Christos Tzolis missed the first solid chances during the first quarter of the game, and then in the 21st minute Andrija Zivkovic fired in a shot from distance that flashed narrowly wide of the AEK goal.
Then, against the run of play, in the 23rd minute AEK opened the scoring through Karim Ansarifard, who slotted home from his team’s one and only opportunity in the game.
PAOK responded immediately in the 25th minute through Tzolis , but after a VAR review, the young striker’s goal was ruled out for a handball.
By the end of the first half, the pace and tempo of the match dropped a little, with the visitors dominating possession and control of the game but without managing to get a breakthrough.
In the second half, PAOK once again came out looking lively and searched for the goal that would put them back on level terms. But this time it was Matos, Schwab and Colak who failed to capitalize on opportunities to score.
Ferreira mixed things up a bit with some substitutions, and as time ticked away PAOK began to become more even more attack-minded, threatening through Karol Swiderski on 77 minutes, then through Diego Biseswar in the 87th minute. The equalizing goal finally came with just one minute of normal time remaining.
Biseswar sent a ball into the penalty area, Swiderski won the first header, and that allowed the on-rushing Murg to score on his debut to make the final score 1-1.
There was still time for PAOK to miss one last chance, and that was in sixth minute of added time when only a brilliant save from AEK ‘keeper Panagiotis Tsintotas prevented Swiderski from scoring when the Polish striker was clean through one-on-one.
Team line-ups:
ΑΕΚ (Massimo Carrera): Tsintotas, Chygrynskiy, Nedelcearu, Hnid, Mitaj, (46′ Lopes), Paulinho (70′ Vasilantonopoulos), Krstičić, Shakhov, Tankovic (60′ Almpanis, 80′ Šabanadžović), Livaja, Ansarifard (60′ Oliveira)
PAOK ( Abel Ferreira ): Z.Zivkovic, Ingason , Varela , Michailidis (81′ Murg ), Giannoulis , Matos (68′ Wague ), Esiti (58′ Ninua ), Schwab , Tziolis (68′ Swiderski ), Α.Zivkovic (81′ Biseswar ), Colak
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