Pregame
Kick Off
Half Time
Goals
Penalty
Substitution
Corners
Offside
Opportunity
Barshot
Comment
Yellow Card
Second Yellow Card
Red card
Missed Penalty
A reaction and winning mentality yields away win
PAOK arrived at the Theodoros Vardinoyannis Stadium with a glint in their collective eye and managed to come away from Crete with a stellar 5-0 victory over OFI on Matchday 22 of the 2024-25 Stoiximan Super League.
A reaction is what was needed and it came in the most convincing way. Against all odds, with players missing through suspensions and injuries, but also with overflowing passion, the right mentality and absolute concentration on the ojective brought a great result for PAOK.
PAOK went into the battle at the Yedi Kule, a traditionally difficult venue for any team to go to, and managed to essentially end the game as a contest in just 30 minutes.
From the first moments of the match, it was obvious that Razvan Lucescu’s players were… in the mood. Applying suffocating pressure high up the pitch, fast movement both on and off the ball, the correct responses all over hte pitch, and in just two minutes they took the lead.
Michailides controlled the ball perfectly and fired a shot at goal which Christogeorgos blocked, but the on-rushing Ali Samatta with a salmon-like diving header made it 1-0.
In the eighth minute, Meite received the ball from Konstantelias , made an excellent move inside the penalty area to work himself some space and fired in a shot which took a deflection and ended up at the feet of Pelkas , who made it 2-0 to the visitors from close range.
PAOK did not take their foot off the gas and in the 12th minute they also got a numerical advantage. Konstantelias produced a clever piece of dribbling, Sengelia fouled him witrh an unncecessarily tough challenge and referee Polychronis, after reviewing the VAR material, showed him a direct red card.
The Double-headed Eagle were having an excellent day and did not stop threatening. In the 21st minute, Konstantelias saw his shot go just over the crossbar, while in the 30th minute, Otto saw his effort blocked illegally by the hand of Christopoulos, and Schwab stepped up to score the subsequent penalty kick to make it 3-0.
OFI tried to find a goal to get back into the game, but Kotarski reacted excellently to block Theodosoulakis‘ header in the 39th minute, while Karachalios «scored» five minutes later, only to see his effort disallowed for offside. The 3-0 scoreline remained unchanged until the end of the first half.
PAOK completely dominated the second half, had two good initial moments via Schwab and Samatta , before a fourth goal came in the 58th minute. Pelkas executed a corner kick, the ball reached Michailides, and he put his name on the scoresheet with a powerful shot.
In the 67th minute Pelkas wrote the epilogue of the match. He quickly took a corner kick, made a wonderful cross to Samatta , who headed in to get his second and his team’s fifth of the match.
Team lineups:
OFI: Christogeorgos, Marinakis, Hadjitheodoridis (83′ Lewis), Silva, Christopoulos, Androutsos, Karachalios (71′ Bakic), Fountas (59′ Apostolakis), Sengelia, Theodosoulakis (71′ Riera), Jung (59′ Salcedo).
PAOK: Kotarski, Otto (72′ Baba), Sastre, Michailides (81′ Colley), Wieteska, Schwab (72′ Vieirinha), Meite (81′ Thymianis), Pelkas, Konstantelias, Shoretire (54′ Pena), Samatta.
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