PAOK players engaged in a tough and highly entertaining training match on the pitch of Toumba on Saturday. After warming-up through a series of physical condition, explosiveness and endurance drills, the players were split into two teams and engaged in a high-intensity match of 50 minutes.

Giakoumis, Raț, Katsikas, Pougouras, Konstantinidis, Noboa, Kitsiou, Deligiannidis, Mak and Koulouris played for the Greens, while Itandje, Spyropoulos, Vítor, Papagiannopoulos, Skondras, Vasaitis, Kace, Tsolakidis, Salpingidis and Athanasiadis played for the Blacks.

In the first half there was a restriction of three touches on the ball in order to make ball circulation more rapid. The “Greens” took the lead with a counterattack, as Deligiannidis delivered a through-ball to Konstantinidis . The latter took the rival defence by surprise and crossed to Koulouris, who finished from close range.

After the interval, there were no rules and it rained goals. The “Blacks” leveled through Athanasiadis’ shot following foreplay by Skondras. But the day belonged to the “Greens”. Koulouris gave them the lead again with a header, teed up by Raț from the left flank. The young striker became provider afterwards, setting up Noboa for the third goal. The “Blacks” wasted a golden chance to reduce distances when Vasaitis’ shot was denied by the crossbar. At stoppage time, Koulouris made it 4-1 with a close range shot.

Panagiotis Glykos, Dimitris Papadopoulos, Fanis Tzandaris, Facundor Pereyra, Eyal Golasa and Alexandros Tziolis followed a special program of physiotherapy and recuperation.

PAOK players have been given the day off on Sunday. They will return to trainings on Monday with a double session at Toumba Stadium and Nea Mesimvria.