THE draw of the “16” of the Conference League took rivals to the measures, theoretically, PAOK and Olympiakouwith the Thessalonians facing the Dinamo Zagreb and the “red and white” ones Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Both have found themselves again in the path of the two Greek teams and in fact the last time this had happened, it was a few months apart!
You see, its summer 2010 the Piraeus had faced the Israelis in 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League and were eliminated on away goals.
In the first match, Piraeus won 2-1 with a reversal in Karaiskakis thanks to goals from Zairi and Romenthal, but they had lost 1-0 in the second leg, staying outside Europe. It was Vangelis Marinakis’ first few months at the club, with the Olympiakos major shareholder then sacking Evald Linen and bringing back Ernesto Valverde. This was also the last season that Piraeus had not played in Europe in the fall.
On the contrary, PAOK had done extremely well in the Europa League a few months later. The Thessalonians had reached the groups after the great qualification on it Fenerbahce in the playoffs and were invited to face Villarreal, Dinamo Zagreb and Club Brugge, finishing second behind the Spaniards.
The “Two-Headed Man of the North” had started the summer with Mario Beretta, who had been replaced before his debut by Pavlos Dermitzakis and then Makis Havos had arrived, but he had made excellent appearances in Europe and had made 2/2 against the Croats, throwing them out of contention.
In the home match, for the 2nd matchday, Ivić’s goal in the 56th minute gave victory, 1-0, to PAOK, who had sealed qualification to the final of the group stage, passing 1-0 from Maximir with a goal by Salpingidis in the 60th minute.
Source: Sport Fm
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