Impressive PAOK, returned to the Conference groups with “four” over Hearts!

Surprising PAOKbroke it up Hearts and ensured his presence in European groups – at least – until December!

The “bicephalic of the North” prevailed over her Hearts with the imposing 4-0 in the “hot” Tuba and returned after a year’s absence to his groups European Conference League. Great performance from all players for the home side, who found goals early and then, having locked up qualification, were able to play creatively, producing – probably – their best performance of the year.

The great scored two goals for PAOK Tysonwhile one was achieved by the amazing Yannis Constantelias and Brandon Thomaswho constantly created threats in Clarke’s goal and provided the assist on his side’s fourth goal.

Thus, the Thessaloniki team closes its European summer in an incredibly successful way, achieving three qualifiers against the Beitar JerusalemHajduk Split, and Hearts.

In the minds of the coaches:

THE Razvan Lucescu lined up PAOK with the familiar 4-2-3-1 and his selections had no surprises, if one excludes his presence Vierinia in the starting formation in the right-back position. Specifically, Mr Kotarsky sat in the hearth, having four at the back of the Vieiranias, Koulierakis, Ekong and Baba. Tsingaras was next to him in the midfield Swabwhile the Romanian coach chose Constantelia, Tyson and Zivkovic and Brandon Thomas competed at the top of the attack.

On the other hand, Mr Frankie McAvoy took Hearts down with Clarke under the posts, in defense he chose a trio with Sibik, Kent, Rowles and Cochrane, Boyce, Devlin took the midfield positions, while Atkinson and Kingsley were on the sides. At the top of the attack for the Scots, Vargas struggled with the captain, Shankland.

The match:

From the first minutes of the game, PAOK showed that he wants to take the initiative of the movements and took possession, while Lucescu’s order was for his players to stay high and press. In the 12th minute, the “double-header of the North” missed a great opportunity, when Vierinia on the right side he converged inside and with his left he made a very powerful shot that ended up on the crossbar of Clarke.

In the 16th minute, the hosts overturned their superiority in goals and opened the scoring with Tyson. The Brazilian took a free-kick from the left and brilliantly kept the ball high, which caught the Hearts defenders… asleep and into the net for 1-0.

Razvan Lucescu’s team having achieved the goal they were looking for, were liberated, had imagination in their game and this was clearly seen in the achievement of the second goal in the 23′! Specifically, Mr Konstantelias took the cross from the left, Schwab took the header and o Thomas with an improbable turn with his back to the goal, he scored 2-0, thus sealing the qualification for the groups for PAOK.

The tempo of the game then dropped noticeably with McAvoy’s players going on a series of hard tackles that reached the limit of unsportsmanlike. In the 34th minute, the guests made their first final as o Cochrane took the corner from the right, with Kent getting a header ahead of Ekong, but didn’t threaten Kotarski. The first half did not have any other notable moments, with PAOK having booked their place in the groups, while it is worth noting that several Hearts fans they left Toumba after completing the first 45 minutes.

At the start of the second half, Hearts came on very strong and in the 53rd minute they threatened with a shot Cochrane inside the area that went over Kotarski’s posts, while two minutes later the same player took a free-kick from the right, but his header Shankland it was weak and ended up wide of Kotarski’s left post.

The guests did not find a goal in their good time and the PAOK punished them with another goal in the 57th minute! Kotarski successfully found Zivkovic, with the Serb spotting and distributing beautifully to Constantia, who may not have found the ball the way he wanted, but with a second attempt he made it 3-0. Razvan Lucescu’s team performed their best performance this year and in the 71st minute it was 4-0 with the awesome and terrible Tyson. Initially, the “black and white” counterattacked for… seminar, Tomas traveled many meters with the ball, saw and passed to the Brazilian and he scored his second personal goal with an ideal finish.

In the last minutes of the match the pace dropped, o Lucescu he made several changes and the final whistle found him PAOK in the Europa Conference League groups.

MVP: Many players of the “bicep of the north” caught high performance, but o Tyson it was something… else! The Brazilian scored the first goal with a brilliant free kick, was a constant source of danger in the Hearts defense in both the first and second half and completed the incredible performance with PAOK’s fourth goal and his second with an ideal finish after his assist Brandon Thomas.

The whistle: The Spaniard Quadra he didn’t make any wrong decisions, however he could have shown more cards to the Hearts players who were marking very hard throughout the game.

PAOK (Razvan Lucescu): Kotarski, Vieirinia (64′ Kenziora), Ekong, Koulierakis, Baba, Tsingaras (64′ Ozdoev), Schwab, A. Zivkovic (83′ Vrakas), Tyson (74′ Murg), Constantelias, Brandon (74′ Tzimas)

Hearts (Frank McAvoy): Clarke, Kent, Sibic, Rawls, Atkinson, Devlin, Boyce (59′ Tagawa), Kingsley (66′ Denholm), Cochrane, Vargas, Shankland (66′ Lowry)

Referee: Guillermo Cuadra (Spain).

Assistants: Paras Ayouso, Alejandro Esteves Iglesias (Spain).

VAR: Maurizio Mariani (Italy).

AVAR: Lorenzo Maggioni (Italy).