The match began with the usual suspects in place for Pablo Garcia and Miroslav Schnauzner’s team. Talichmanidis between the posts, Panagiotou and Michailidis in central defence, Kaloutsikidis and Tachatos in the full-back positions, Tsiggaras, Giaxis and Doumtsis the midfield trio, and Horteiani, Tziolis and Koutsias in attack.

The first 20 minutes of the first half went by without any clear chances as both teams looked to size each other up, although PAOK had the upper hand but failed to capitalize by fashioning a threat. All that changed at the half-hour mark when the Dikefalos tou Vorra’s players stepped up their efforts and…  ended the game as a contest.

Doumtsis released Koutsias, who skipped past a visiting defender and applied a clinical finish to make it 1-0.

Six minutes later Tsiggaras picked out Tziolis with a precise pass on the edge of the penalty area, and he scored with a measured side-footed effort to doubled the advantage. Then, on 38 minutes following a mistake from the Erythrolefki’s goalkeeper, Tziolis finished flawlessly to make it 3-0.

With the game over and done with at that point, the tempo of the match dropped significantly in the second half, with PAOK able to sit back and hold the visitors at bay which they did comfortably. Then, the win became a rout on 68 minutes when Gorteziani finished well following an excellent slide-rule pass from Grosdis.

The win enabled PAOK to open up a seven-point gap ahead of second-placed Panathinaikos and awaits the Greens match against Asteras Tripoli to discover if that lead will remain intact.

PAOK lineup:

Talichmanidis, Kaloutsikidis, Tachatos (71′ Aventisian), Michailidis, Panagiotou, Tsiggaras, Doumtsis (61′ Grosdis), Koutsias (71′ Pipiliaris), Tziolis (71′ Konstantelias), Gorteziani (78′ Panidis).