“Tariff” to Panserraikos and… the furious PAOK left for the semi-finals!

The foot stuck on the gas and PAOK left for the semi-finals! The “two-headed man of the north” paraded in Serres winning 4-0 of Panserraikos in the first match of the phase of “8” making next week’s rematch a formality!

With 10 changes in their arrangement the Thessalonians who did not… pity his team Pablo Garcia, they missed many chances and stopped at four goals. Scored again Mark Antonyvery good match from Brandon Thomas who missed a penalty in the 59′, a return to goals in an impressive way for him Andrija Zivkovic who scored the fourth goal for his team.

In the mind of the coaches

Changes to faces and shape by Pablo Garcia, who chose it 4-3-3 for Panserraikos with Katsikas at home and Dunkelroy, Diamantis, Thymianis, Peleas in defense. Moreira, Oikonomou and Sofianos in the axis, with Mourgos, Maskanakis and Gouleri in attack.

The known 4-2-3-1 and with 10 changes by Razvan Lucescu for PAOK. Zivko Zivkovic in the goal, who had Sastre, Michaelidis, Nasberg and Rafa Soares in front of him in defense. Schwab and Tsingaras, the two midfielders, Marcos Antonio in a free role, while Konstantelias and Andrija Zivkovic fought on the wings behind Tomas.

The match

With PAOK in the mood to chase the quick goal, the match started in Serres as the Panserraikos players were quite backward. However, Pablo Garcia’s team was the one that in an unsuspected phase almost took the lead, when in PAOK’s build up, Živko Živković made a mistake by giving the ball to Murgos, the young winger raised his foot to score, but slipped with the phase to pass bloodlessly for the defense of the guests.

In the very next phase, Razvan Lucescu’s team found the way to the net. From a corner executed by Constantelias from the left side, Brandon Thomas made the header, Katsikas saved with Nasberg taking the “rebound” to open the scoring.

The visitors continued at the same pace, winning successive corners which, however, went untapped. In the 15th minute, Brandon Thomas’ shot went wide, while in the 22nd minute, PAOK found the way to the net for the second time.

From Okonomos’ error the ball quickly reached Brandon Thomas who passed to Živkovic, who saw Sastre overlap, passed it to him, with the Spaniard shooting from a sideline position, under the legs of Katsikas for 0-2 !

PAOK, in no mood to slow down, scored the third goal in the 26th minute with Soares scoring after a corner by Zivkovic, but the ball ending up in the arms of Katsikas.

In the 30th minute, PAOK came very close to 3-0 when Živković with a terrific diagonal ball found Constantelia at the back of the defense, but the youngster missed.

Nine minutes later, Panserraikos showed that it had a “pulse” by missing a very good chance to get back into the match. Woolery took the ball from the right and passed it to Maskanakis who, after feinting for Nasberg, shot with Zivko Zivkovic saving and the half ending shortly after.

With the tempo slow in the opening minutes of the second half, Panserraikos tried to take advantage of the situation by threatening in the 51st minute when Warda, who came on as a half-time substitute, caught a shot from outside the area with his left foot, sending the ball just wide out

With the pace of the match clearly poor, PAOK won a penalty in the 57th minute when Diamantis brought down Brandon Thomas forcing Cecila to point the penalty. The Spaniard took over the execution, but Katsikas saved in a corner keeping the score at 0-2.

In the very next phase, the home team came close to reducing the score with Ward going on the counter and passing vertically to Woolery, who was beaten on a four-on-four by Zivkovic.

PAOK “cleared” qualification in the 69th minute! After excellent movement of the ball, Marcos Antonio met it outside the area and shot beautifully with his right foot to beat Katsikas for the 0-3.

But the “black and white” storm did not stop there since in the 78th minute the “cherry” was put on the cake of qualification in a wonderful way. Constantelias, troubled Bergström, passed outside the area to Živković who, with a dream pass, sent the ball into the “loophole” of Katsikas for 0-4 which was the final score of the match.

MVP: If Brandon Thomas had not missed the penalty in the 59th minute, we would have been talking about the MVP of the match. However, a great game for PAOK was made by Sastre who took many steps from the right, “leaned” towards the axis in cases where there was no footballer there, while he scored his team’s second goal in the 22nd minute.

The “whistle”: Tsetsila’s presence in Serres was… typical, with the Greek referee correctly indicating the penalty that PAOK won in the 56th minute and which Katsikas saved.

The elevens of the match

Panserraikos (Pablo Garcia): Katsikas – Dunkelroy, Diamantis (61′ Bergström), Thymianis, Peleas – Moreira (61′ Staikos), Oikonomou, Sofianos (46′ Warda) – Mourgos, Maskanakis, Gouleri (61′ Betancourt)

Left on the bench were: Tsombanidis, Avlonitis, Petavrakis, Tomas, Papavasiliou

PAOK (Razvan Lutsekou): Z. Zivkovic – Sastre (70′ Kenziora), Michaelidis, Nasburg, Soares – Tsingaras (70′ Tyson), Schwab (70′ Meite)-A. Zivkovic (70′ Murg), Constantelias, Markos Antonio – Tomas (70′ Tzimas)

Left on the bench were: Talikhmanidis, , Baba, Ozdoev, Despodov,

Referee: Konstantinos Tsetsilas

Assistants: Konstantinos Staikos, George Christakoglou

Fourth: Konstantinos Resident

VAR: Angelos Evangelou, Iordanis Aptosoglou

The film of the match from the live of sport-fm.gr