PAOK pay for lack of readiness
As it turned out, PAOK proved that the team were not quite ready for the European matches against Levski Sofia and paid for their mistakes by being excluded from the UEFA Europa Conference League after a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their 2nd qualifying round tie completed a 3-1 defeat on aggregate. A new beginning always carries risks, and the Double-headed Eagle fell short of one of their season objectives early.
PAOK now have no other choice but to put their collective heads down, work hard and build a team that will be able to challenge for the domestic goals and lay the foundations for the future.
PAOK did battle on Thursday. Even when everything went wrong in the 24th minute and Levski found the net with Ronaldo. The home side were persistent and tried to play their football, keeping the ball at their feet, before equalizing and hinting at a dramatic turnaround. But somewhere along the way the challenge broke down.
Within eight minutes, PAOK were left with nine players due to the dismissals of Augusto and Vieirinha, and basically lost the right to claim something more from then on. The work continues and PAOK never gives up.
Team lineups:
PAOK: Kotarski, Lyratzis (66′ Koutsias), Ingason, Kargas (72′ Schwab), Rafa Soares (46′ Vieirinha), Augusto, Kurtic, A. Zivkovic, Quagliata (46′ Biseswar), Dantas, Narey.
Levski: Mikhailov, Petris, Sudberg, Cordoba, Galchev, Krastef, Van der Kaap, Milanov (85′ Petkov), Ronaldo (83′ Kraev), Bari (93′ Mitkov), Welton (93′ Tsunami).
