Everything goes wrong for PAOK
PAOK paid dearly for their mistakes in the first 20 minutes of their clash with AEK at the OPAP Arena. Although the players tried to react, despite a battling performance the team collapsed left Athens on the wrong end of a heavy 4-0 defeat in the 2022-23 Stoiximan Super League Matchday 6 Play Off derby contest.
PAOK had started the match well, pressing high up the pitch and passing the ball around impressively. They began making inroads into the opposition’s final third but then everything changed in the ninth minute.
Giannis Kargas was shown a straight red by match referee Tobias Stieler – after consulting VAR – for a tough challenge on Jonsson in midfield. Kedziora returned to the center of defense, A.Zivkovic played as a right back and AEK took control of the game with numerical advantage and started to press for the opening goal.
After the disappointment of losing a player, the Double-headed Eagle began to make mistakes in their own half under pressure and in the 20th minute they paid for it when Zuber opened the scoring.
In the 25th minute, Moukoudi then made it 2-0 from an AEK corner to make things even easier for his team.
From that point on, Razvan Lucescu’s team managed to recover their composurea little, started to circulated the ball better, and had some good opportunities to hit back with a goal, but to no avail.
It was a similar pattern in the second half with PAOK fighting for their lives but AEK having both the psychological and numerical advantage and thus they were able to find space between the PAOK midfield and defensive lines to score two more goals, one via Levia Garcia in the 77th minute and then another courtesy of Fernandes in the 86th minute.
PAOK, as Lucescu also stated immediately after the final whistle, must erase the game from their collective minds as quickly as possible, regroup and react in the upcoming match against Aris at Toumba Stadium, which will determine a lot in the battle with Olympiacos for third place.
Team lineups:
AEK: Athanasiadis, Rota, Vida, Moukoudi, Haji Safi, Jonsson, Amrabat (70′ Eliasson), Pineda (58′ Mandalos), Gacinovic (69′ Paolo Fernandes), Zuber (79′ Galanopoulos), Garcia (79′ Van Weert)
PAOK: Kotarski, Kedziora, Ingason (67′ Sastre), Kargas, Rafa Soares, Dantas (75′ Felipe Soares), Schwab, El Kaddouri (75′ Oliveira), Konstantelias (75′ Biseswar), A. Zivkovic, Brandon (21 ‘ Nasberg).
