It was one of those games that can always be a potential banana skin. The 2-0 result from the first leg in favor of PAOK did not leave much scope for a comeback, but Kalamata came to Toumba to try their luck. Razvan Lucescu’s PAOK, however, were… relentless.

Despite the many new faces in a much-changed starting XI and extensive rotation from the Romanian coach, the players who came in were determined and did not leave any room for their opponents to get a look in.

Two goals in two minutes from Brandon Thomas in the 11th and 13th minutes were enough to seal a ticket to the quarter-finals. The Spanish forward scored the opener after converting an assist from Narey, while moments later Biseswar played him in and he scored again with a smart left-footed finish to make it 2-0.

The rest of the match was a formality. The visitors came forward and looked for a goal to try and get back in the tie, but PAOK’s defense were on top and did not allow them to threaten, with Zivkovic saving a one-on-one chance against Tatos in the second half.

For their part, Lucescu’s men were in good form, creating some further good chances, but they couldn’t find another goal, with Mendes saving from Narey at the start of the second half.

The game will be quickly forgotten by most, but certainly not by Andre Ricardo, Stefanos Tzimas and Ermis Selimaj, all of whom made their official debuts with PAOK, while in the unpleasant news of the day, there were injuries to Filipe Soares, who left the pitch with a groin problem, and Lefteris Lyratzis, who took a blow to his eye during a challenge for the ball.

Team lineups:

PAOK: Zivkovic, Sastre (63′ Lyratzis – 72′ Selimaj), Kargas, Nasberg, Vieirinha, Dantas, Schwab, Filipe Soares (32′ Ricardo), Narey (63′ A.Zivkovic), Biseswar (72′ Tzimas), Brandon.

Kalamata: Mendes, Bakayoko, Lupano, Assigba, Papatolios, Karagounis, Benitez (70′ Konstantinopoulos), Mouser (84′ Triantafyllakis), Mavinga, Arnarellis (76′ Tatos), Markovski (70′ Vasilogiannis).