Pregame
Kick Off
Half Time
Goals
Penalty
Substitution
Corners
Offside
Opportunity
Barshot
Comment
Yellow Card
Second Yellow Card
Red card
Missed Penalty
Premiere with three points
Good football, a performance of substance and three goals. PAOK kicked off their 2023-24 Stoiximan Super League season in perfect fashion, winning 3-0 against Asteras Tripolis at the Toumba. The next challenge already awaits, however, and the team are already thinking about Scotland and the first-leg battle with Hearts.
Razvan Lucescu made an extensive rotation of his team compared to Thursday’s game against Hajduk Split, keeping only Kotarski, Ekong, Schwab and Andrija Zivkovic in the starting XI, and opting to include Vieirinha, Michailidis, Rafa Soares, Ozdoev, Taison, Murg and Brandon for this match.
From the first minute, it was PAOK who took the initiative and pinned Asteras back in their own half, looking for a way to open the scoring. Schwab and Brandon threatened twice within a minute in the 16th minute, while Asteras responded with a shot from Regis that was blocked by Kotarski .
In the 23rd minute, PAOK found a solution and went ahead. Taison pressed high, stole the ball and passed to Schwab, who in turn released Murg , who controlled the ball before applying a clinical finish to make it 1-0. After the goal the tempo of the match dropped until the 40-minute mark.
Match referee Fotias pointed to the penalty spot when Ekong challenged Miritelos. The Asteras forward took the spot-kick himself, but the ball found Kotarski’s post and PAOK remained ahead. Five minutes later, Fotias then gave PAOK a penalty after Taison appeared to be tripped in the penalty area, but after using VAR, the referee reversed his decision and gave the Brazilian a yellow card for simulation. The result was that the teams went into the tunnel at half-time with PAOK leading 1-0.
The second half saw PAOK again pushing for the goal that would seal the victory. Within 15 minutes they finally managed to find two in quick succession. The major protagonist was again Andrija Zivkovic who scored both of the goals, after already netting twice against Hajduk in mid-week.
Initially, in the 54th minute, he applied a cool finish to score after an assist from Schwab to make it 2-0, while just five minutes later he scored on the rebound after a save by Papadopoulos from Taison’s shot saw the ball fall kindly for him to make it 3-0.
The game ended somewhere there, with the only interest being focused on shaping the final score, which did not change.
The only black point of the match was the departures of Ekong and Samatta with injury problems. The two players will be examined by the medical staff on Monday (21.08) to determine the extent of their issues.
Team lineups:
PAOK: Kotarski, Rafa Soares, Michailidis, Ekong (Nasberg 64′), Vieirinha, Schwab (Giaxis 85′), Ozdoev, Murg, Taison, A.Zivkovic (Konstantelias 74′), Brandon (Samatta 74′ – Tzimas 85′).
Asteras Tripolis: Papadopoulos (Sgouris 62′), Castano, Djukanovic, Carmona, Alvares, Munafo, Alagbe, Regis, Sito (Bartolo 74′), Kaltsas, Miritelo (Manzis 74′).
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