It was one of those matches when you leave the stadium empty-handed and simply can’t understand how. And unfortuantely it’s a situation in which PAOK have found themselves in several times this the season, but the team has always found a way to react and so it must do in this case as well. After all, nothing has been decided yet, as the road to the season finale is a long one.

The first half was a game littered with mistakes. PAOK did not play their best football in a game that was played largely in midfield with both sets of players making a lot of mistakes. AEK had a goal correctly disallowed in the seventh minute, while PAOK threatened on two occasions via Nelson Oliveira. Kotarski reacted quickly to save from Pineda in the 27th minute.

The second half belonged entirely to the Double-headed Eagle. Razvan Lucescu’s team stepped up their performance and completely dominated the pitch, controllin both the possession and the tempo, while also managing to create several scoring opportunities.

In the 52nd minute, Koulierakis threatened with a header that did was just off target. Six minutes later, Nelson Oliveira fired in a deflected shot that also narrowly missed the target, while in the 65th minute Konstantelias released Oliveira with an incredible pass, but Oliveira was denied by AEK ‘keeper Athanasiadism, who parried his effort onto the post and away to safety.

In the 73rd minute it was Sastre’s turn to try and effort on goal after a great team effort, but the ball ended up hitting the side-netting of a relived Athanasiadis‘ goal.

The phase that was to decide the match came in the 80th minute. Douglas attempted a pass from outside the Union penalty area, was fouled but the match referee Kulbakov waved the players to play on, and in then AEK went down the other end of the pitch with Araújo beating Kotarski to make it 1-0.

The PAOK players reacted well to the setback, pinning their opponents in their own half and piling on the pressure, but the hosts failed to find the goal that would have levelled matters and left the pitch at the final whistle without a point.

The Double-headed Eagle must immediately put this bad result behind them, however, and prepare for the next battle against Olympiacos at the «Georgios Karaiskakis» on Wednesday (04.05, 21:00).

Team lineups:

PAOK: Kotarski, Sastre, Ingason, Koulierakis, Rafa Soares, Schwab (Dantas 46′), Augusto (Filipe Soares 85′), Narey (Taison 60′), A. Zivkovic, Konstantelias (El Kaddouri 72′), Oliveira (Brandon 72′)

AEK: Athanasiadis, Sidibe, Vida, Tzavellas, Hadji Safi, Szymanski, Amrabat (Eliason 63′), Gatsinovic, Jonsson (Garcia 46′), Araujo (Zuber 83′), Pineda (Mandalos 71′).