Pregame
Kick Off
Half Time
Goals
Penalty
Substitution
Corners
Offside
Opportunity
Barshot
Comment
Yellow Card
Second Yellow Card
Red card
Missed Penalty
Vidication and victory
The scenario was a familiar one. For a long time everything was going wrong. Not because PAOK were not playing well, but because nothing was going in their favor. A long hopeful shot from distance saw the home side score, while the post denied the Razvan Lucescu’s side twice, with another ‘goal’ disallowed. But PAOK has learned to believe in themselves, and in their work, and this time it was vindicated, with the black and whites coming away with a 3-1 win.
With bruised egos and the bitterness of Leoforos still strong in their mind, PAOK went to Agrinio to turn the situation around, get the three points and continue their ongoing battle for the title.
But as we mentioned in the introduction, everything seemed to be going wrong. In the first phase of the match, Panaitolikos came within a breath of the opening goal, while in the fifth minute, with a speculatuive shot from Hatzitheodoridis, they took the lead. PAOK did not lose their heads, however. They reacted, played methodically, had control and possession of the ball and looked for the goal to level things up.
They had many opportunities to do so. The two occasions when they were thwarted by the frame of the goal were the best, first with a direct free-kick by Murg, and then with an excellent run and shot by Konstantelias . It remained 1-0 until the half-time break.
In the second half, the pattern of the match did not change. PAOK continued to play their game with patience and composure, and they thought that they had finally got back on level terms through Konstantelias , but it was disallowed for offside by Despodov , who provided the assist.
Lucescu then brought on the reinforcements from the bench and the Double-headed Eagle were level within two minutes.
Initially Sastre in the 72nd minute, after a nice team effort, sent over a cross, which delfected off a defender’s boot and ended up in the net to make it 1-1. Then, in the 74th minute, it was Andrija Zivkovic’s moment. The Serb received the ball just outside the penalty area and with an improbable shot sent the ball flying into the back of the net to make it 2-1 to PAOK.
That seemed to demoralise the home team, and PAOK perfectly managed the match until the final whistle, even finding plenty of spaces to work openings, one of which brought them a third goal with Giannis Konstantelias the man on target, converting an assist from Andrija Zivkovic to make the final score 3-1.
Team lineups:
Panaitolikos: Chaves, Mladen, Huanpi, Hatzitheodoridis (Duarte 68′), Torrejon, Sengelia (Dias 68′), Tsingaras (Peres 82′), Joao Pedro (Lomonaco 82′), Malis, Stagic, Liavas (Maurias 81′).
PAOK: Zivkovic, Sastre, Kedziora, Koulierakis, Rafa Soares (Otto 71′), Marcos Antonio (Ozdoev 63′), Meite, Despodov (Schwab 81′), Konstantelias, Murg (A.Zivkovic 63′), Tzimas (Samatta 46 ‘).
