Răzvan Lucescu chose to start Pontus Wernbloom and Alin Toșca, who made his debut for the “Double-Headed Eagle” and he also fielded Dimitris Pelkas as a false nine.

Maurizio Sarri presented the best possible XI of the players he had at his disposal and his team took the reins of the encounter right from kick off.

It took them just seven minutes to score the opener. Willian came one-on-one with Alexandros Paschalakis and beat him to make it 0-1 for the English side.

PAOK tried to react through a Fernando Varela header that went wide. The rest of the first half was one-way traffic, as the London outfit brought out on the pitch their undeniable quality and wasted many opportunities –mainly through Morata- for a larger scoreline.

In the last minute before the interval though, Spanish referee Mallenco waved “play” to PAOK players’ legitimate appeals for a spot kick, when Maurício was brought down by Barkley.

The complexion of the tie didn’t change when the two sides returned from their half-time rest. The Blues enjoyed possession and created dangerous situations, but Paschalakis put on some excellent saves to keep them at bay.

Lucescu brought in Amr Warda, Aleksandar Prijović and Diego Biseswar for the last stretch of the encounter, boosting his attack. However Kepa was alert and denied Prijović and Biseswar to safeguard Chelsea’s 1-0 victory.

PAOK started their UEFA Europa League campaign with a loss to overwhelming favourites Chelsea, but they will profit from the experience of facing such a quality rival.

Meanwhile, BATE Borisov won 2-0 in Vidi’s home ground and will play host to PAOK in a fortnight, in a encounter that could prove crucial for qualification.

Line-ups:

PΑΟΚ: Paschalakis, Vieirinha , Varela, Khacheridi, Toșca, Wernbloom, Maurício, Shakhov (69′ Prijović), Jabá (82′ Biseswar), Pelkas (62′ Warda), El Kaddouri.

Chelsea: Kepa, Zappacosta, Rüdiger, Christensen, Marcos Alonso (66’ Azpilicueta), Jorginho (65’ Fàbregas), Kanté, Barkley, Pedro, Willian, Morata (80’ Giroud).