Pregame
Kick Off
Half Time
Goals
Penalty
Substitution
Corners
Offside
Opportunity
Barshot
Comment
Yellow Card
Second Yellow Card
Red card
Missed Penalty
PAOK hit a... wall
PAOK were the favorites going into their season-opening match and showed it on the field. The hosts completely dominated the game, and created lots of chances, only to come up against a strong rearguard action from the Israelis’ multi-faceted defense, and paid for some poor final-ball decision making which meant the score ended 0-0, leaving everything open for the second leg.
PAOK started the game strongly, imposing their rhythm from the first minute, and the first big moment came in the 12th minute. Andrija Živkovic was fouled in the penalty area, Schwab stepped up to take the penalty, but Beitar goalkeeper Silva saved the Austrian’s effort.
The missed penalty did not affect Razvan Lucescu’s men confidence, and the home side continued to press and create chances. Two good shots by Taison and Baba did not find the target, and the same was the case for Ekong with a header, while the visitors’ goalkeeper again had answers to efforts by Konstantelias and a long-range effort from Schwab .
Up at the other end of the pitch, Beitar had a great chance to score when the ball bounced off an attacking player from a cross, but the ball hit Kotarski’s crossbar, with the PAOK goalkeeper not facing any other particular problems in the first 45 minutes.
The pattern of the match did not change after half-time, with PAOK enjoying the overwhelming share of possession as they continuously probed for corridors towards Silva’s goal. For their part, however, the Israelis played with virtually all of their players behind the ball and looked to launch counter attacks.
Still, PAOK did have more good chances, Lucescu brought on all of his available weapons from the bench, and his players battled and won a flurry of corners and free-kicks, but the goal did not come.
Everything will now be decided in seven days’ time in the second leg clash in Jerusalem.
Team lineups:
PAOK: Kotarski, Kedziora, Ekong, Michailidis, Baba, Tsingaras (71′ Filipe Soares), Schwab, A.Zivkovic (86′ Murg), Konstantelias (64′ Narey), Taison, Brandon (71′ Samarta)
Beitar Jerusalem: Silva, Morosov, Crieff, Gottlieb (Corsia 57′), Dgani, Biton, Thomas, Ashkenazi, Azarin, Sua (Micha 72′), Nicolaescu.
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