PAOK beat Edinburgh with… Heartbreaker Zivkovic!

PAOK passed through Scotland with a total upset and took the lead in qualifying for the Conference League groups!

The “double-header of the North” won 2-1 against Hearts at Tynecastle Park and took the decisive step in the playoffs to lock next week in Toumba its presence in European groups after a year. In a game that had… everything, the “black and whites” showed that they are the better team, they were not affected by Shankland’s goal, immediately responding with a Schwab penalty and in the second half, Živkovic with a wonderful goal gave the victory to Razvan’s team Lucescu.

In the minds of the coaches:

Razvan Lucescu lined up PAOK with the familiar 4-2-3-1 and his selections had no surprises, given the known absences and competitive problems. Kotarski sat in goal, having a back four of Kenziora, Koulierakis, Ekong and Soares. In the midfield, Tsingaras was next to Schwab, while in the midfield trio, the Romanian coach chose Constantelia, Tyson and Zivkovic, and Brandon Thomas played at the top of the attack.

On the other hand, Frankie McAvoy brought Hearts down with Clarke under the posts, in defense he chose four with Atkinson, Kent, Rowles and Kingsley and Devlin and Vargas took their place in the midfield positions, while Cochrane and McKay were on the flanks . At the top of the attack for the Scots, Boyce struggled with captain Shankland.

The match:

The match started and the first quarter in Edinburgh was simply… explosive! In the 6th minute, Rafa Soares lost his position from the left and Vargas, who found space, raced and in his attempt to enter the area, Schwab made the mark, with the hosts asking for a penalty. Treimanis was alerted by the VAR to watch and the Latvian showed the white bullet, with Shankland finding the net with a powerful drive into Kotarski’s right-hand corner.

Razvan Lucescu’s side were not only unfazed by the goal they conceded, but two minutes later they took the lead on condition and Andrija Živkovic won a penalty. Specifically, in the 10th minute, Serbos entered the area nicely and was brought down by Rawls, with Treimanis not discussing it… at all and showing the white arrow. It was executed by Schwab, who showed his enormous class from the eleven steps and made it 1-1, bringing the game to an absolute balance.

Afterwards, the pace of the game dropped noticeably, with both teams emphasizing the rear and the way to remove the dangers from the goals of Clark and Kotarski for Hearts and PAOK respectively. In the 27th minute, Tyson and Soares combined beautifully on the left, the latter taking a shot from a tight angle that went wide, with Treimanis flagged for offside in the phase.

In the 31st minute it was Hearts’ time to threaten and they went ahead with a double big chance, with Kotarski making an impressive save from Shankland’s powerful header and later in the phase Boyce shot from close range but Rafa Soares made a save and sent it away for a corner.

In the next 15 minutes the game didn’t have much of a phase, with Hearts constantly playing deep balls targeting Shankland and Boyce in attack, which affected the game PAOK want to play and have learned with the ball down. The last minutes of the first half didn’t hold anything special and the two teams went to the locker room with the score tied.

In the replay the “double-header of the North” stormed in, threatening with a Živkovic shot in the 49th minute and six minutes later (55th) Tyson fired a powerful shot into the area but Clarke cleared the danger. At one hour of play the Thessalonikians had the upper hand, however they could not keep up the pressure they were applying and the chances they were creating, as a result of which Hearts were raising their lines and trying to threaten.

More in a while…