With an excellent atmosphere created by the home fans at the Toumba Stadium, the players went out onto the pitch following the coach’s instructions to the letter and… suffocated their opponents from the first minutes.

Brandon fired a warning shot with a prodded finish that flashed wide after a cross from Zivkovic, before the home side then took the lead in the 10th minute. Konstantelias collected the ball from A. Zivkovic, held it for as long as was needed against three opponents before finding Taison with a perfect pass. The veteran Brazilian made no mistake with a placed finish on the move to make it 1-0.

PAOK continued to press forward and in the 29th minute they scored a second goal. Zivkovic produced a vclever free-kick to present Brandon with the opportunity to make it 2-0 with a one-touch finish. The visitors had their best moment of the first half aftewards and came close to reducing the deficit, but Saldanha hit the crossbar, wand the teams went into the dressing rooms at half-time with the score at 2-0.

In the second half, the pace of the match dropped noticeably, as PAOK stopped pressing with the intensity of the first half, but made sure not to be threatened at any point. On the other hand, in the last 20 minutes of the match, the home side’s midfielders decided to threw a party and inspired the team to score three more goals.

In the 76th minute, Despodov received the ball after an excellent team effort and served it to Chalov , who executed a clinical finish to make it 3-0, while in the 79th minute the Bulgarian winger won a penalty and Zivkovic slotted home from the penalty spot to make it 4-0.

Despodov then wrote the epilogue himself, with the Bulgarian national team captain converting an assist from Otto, scoring with a fine finish to take the goals tally up to five.

As a result, PAOK moved on to seven points and with two games remaining, they can still qualifify for the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League. Before then, however, is hte next challenge on the domestic front against Panaitolikos in Agrinio.

Team lineups:

PAOK: Kotarski, Baba, Michailides, Kedziora, Otto, Ozdoev, Kamara (Schwab 83’), Taison (Despodov 74’), Konstantelias, A. Zivkovic (Shoretire 83’), Brandon (Chalov 62’).

Ferencváros: Dibus, Ramirez, Gardeman, Cisse, Makrekis, Maiga, Romans (Zachariasen 46’), Fani, Traore (Michijan 65’), Gruber (Candy 65’), Saldanha.