Razvan Lucescu’s team produced an excellent performance, combining both spectacle and substance which left no room for their opponents to respond.

From the very first seconds of the match, PAOK surged forward into the penalty area and took a second minute lead with Narey converting a cross, with the ball taking a deflection off  Romaos on its way into the back of Choutesiotis’ net.

Lucescu’s players did not slow down after that, although Ionikos tried to respond immediately with two missed shots by Seba, and from the 20th minute onwards the game became one-way traffic.

In the 24th minute, Konstantelias made it 2-0 from Narey’s cross, and celebrated his birthday in the best way. Brandon Thomas took over the scoring after that. The Spanish forward made it 3-0 in the 28th minute with a perfect finish after Narey’s accurate cross, while two minutes later we saw perhaps the best goal of the night.

Narey again provided the assist for Andrija Živkovic, who controlled the ball outside the penalty area and then also added his name to the list of scorers with an incredible lob for 4-0.

The game was over at that point, but that did not stop the home side. In the 48th minute, Brandon missed a great opportunity after a pass by A. Zivkovic, while in the same phase of play, Massas was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.

Ionikos, with one less player and four goals behind, failed to contain PAOK who continued to create opportunities.

One of those was exploited by Tomas Kedziora. In his first appearance in the starting XI, the Polish right-back produced an acrobatic finish to make it 5-0 in the 54th minute following a cross from Narey, who completed a hat-trick of assists. In the 68th minute, Taison hit the crossbar with a thunderbolt of a shot from outside the penalty area.

And while it seemed like that would be that in terms of goals, with Lucescu giving some playing time to Omar El Kadduri who returned after his injury – but also to the youngsters Stefanos Tzimas and Ricardo, the game had another beautiful story to offer us.

In the first minute of stoppage time, Rafa Soares crossed from the left and Tzimas rose to score with a powerful header to make it 6-0, becoming the youngest player to find the net in a PAOK shirt in the process, surpassing the record of Giorgos Koudas.

The final whistle triggered a raputurous applause from the home crowd and now everyone switches their attention to Wednesday’s cup semi-final match against Lamia.

Team lineups:

PAOK: Kotarski, Kedziora, Ingason, Nasberg, Rafa Soares, Dantas, Augusto (El Kaddouri 58′), Narey (Taison 58′), A.Zivkovic (Ricardo 76′), Konstantelias (Biseswar 71′), Brandon (Tzimas 71′)

Ionian: Houtesiotis, Souza, Tsigrinski, Romao, Andounes (Tsimpsach 46′), Roumoulakou, Kanias, Lovera (Pogossian 77′), Massas, Seba (Tsirigotis 77′), Manzis (Manos 77′).