He passed… out of Serres and PAOK continues the hunt

He didn’t impress with his performance, but he came through victorious (2-0) from the headquarters of Panserraikos and continues in… after the pioneer AEK, PAOK.

The Thessalonians faced many problems in creating against the well-organized defense of the home team, but they finally managed to get the three points, opening the scoring in stoppage time of the first half (45’+1′) with Constantia and “locking in” the win with own goal by Petavrakis at 90’+2′.

With 9 players Panserraikos finished the game, with Moreira to be expelled in the 69th minute with two yellow cards, while o Deligiannidis saw the referee’s straight red card in the 83rd minute, for a dangerous tackle on Tyson.

Thus, PAOK celebrated a second consecutive victory after being eliminated in the semi-finals of the Cup, reaching the 57 degrees and remaining at -1 from the pioneer AEK, while Panserraikos for the sixth consecutive matchday, staying at 24 points and in 10th place.

In the mind of the coaches

With 4-2-3-1 lined up his team o Christos Kontis, not having Alexic, Betancourt, Hadjistravo, Ouedraogo and Tomas available. Hovan started under the posts, with Diamantis, Thymiani duo as stoppers, right back Deligiannidis and left back Petavrakis. Moreira and Oikonomou were the two midfielders, while Peleas, Warda and Dunkerloui moved behind the more advanced Woolery.

PAOK also had a lot of absences, since Kotarski, Ekong, Baba, Michaelidis, Sastre, Koulierakis, Meite and Andrija Zivkovic were left out of the squad. THE Lucescu chose Z. Živkovic as the goalkeeper, with Vieirania returning to the starting line-up after almost two months, taking on the right-back role, while Kenziora, Nasberg were the stopper duo, alongside left-back Yoni Otto. In fact, the Portuguese became the oldest player to play in an official match for PAOK, at the age of 38 years, 1 month and 4 days, breaking the record previously held by Kostas Chalkias. Schwab and Ozdoev started on the axis, with Despodov on the right, Constantelia on the left and Murg as the “ten”, behind Samata.

The match

PAOK came out stronger in the opening minutes, creating their first chance to open the scoring in the 5th minute when Murg took a corner and Samata headed the ball wide. A minute later, the visitors threatened again, with Constantelia finding space and testing his foot from distance, the ball going just wide of Hovan’s left-hand post.

In the 11th minute, Panseraikos stepped into Zivkovic’s area for the first time, with Vieirinia catching Warda at the last moment and with the assistant raising his flag for offside, while in the 12th minute, Schwab tried a long, but missed shot. From that point on, the home side leveled the match, with Ward firing from distance but not worrying Zivkovic.

In the 24th minute Thymianis injured his knee after a collision with Murg and was forced to be replaced by Bergström, while in the 27th minute Constantelias made an individual effort and shot from a diagonal position, on the outside of the net. This was also the only final effort after the 12th minute for PAOK, who had a lot of difficulty against the well-organized defense of Panserraikos.

However, the visitors took the lead on 45’+2′ when, following Yoni Otto’s deep ball, Diamantis misjudged and Constantelias took advantage of the opportunity, taking the ball and beating Hovan for 0-1 and the 7th his goal this season!

PAOK continued to have the initiative of the movements at the beginning of the second half, with the percentages in favor of possession reaching up to 70%, while Panserraikos looked for its opportunities with counter-attacks. In the 51st minute, Murg committed a foul from a very good position, on the wall, while in the 54th minute, Yoni Otto shot from the edge of the area, very high.

In the 58th minute, the home team “touched” the equalizer, after a quick counter-attack and a strong shot by Ward that was impressively saved by Zivkovic, while PAOK “answered” with two finals of their own, initially in the 61st minute, when an Ozdoev shot went against defender and resulted in a corner, and then in the 62nd minute, when Despontov shot with power and Hovan made an impressive save for a corner.

In the 68th minute, Zivkovic was on hand, blocking a drifting shot by Staikos, while a minute later (69th minute) Panserraikos was down to 10 men, after Moreira saw Diamantopoulos’ yellow card for the second time, after marking Schwab . Despite everything, Panseraikos threatened again in the 77th minute, with Zivkovic blocking a long-range shot by Sofianos with overpowering intensity, while in the 78th minute, Hovan impressively saved a powerful shot from Despodov.

In the 83rd minute, the hosts were down to 9 players, after Deligiannidis directly saw the red card of Diamantopoulos for tagging Tyson with his shoe caps, with PAOK “locking in” the three points in the 90th minute, when Rafa Soares made the cross from the right and the ball found Petavrakis, before ending up in the net for the final 0-2.

MVP: In a game in which PAOK struggled a lot in terms of the creative part of their game, o Konstantelias stood out, taking initiatives and making it difficult for the Panserraikos defense. He was the one who gave his team the lead by taking advantage of Diamantis’ mistake and takes the title of most valuable, after another very positive performance.

The whistle: THE Diamantopoulos left Panserraikos with 9 players, expelling Moreira and Deligiannidis. The yellow cards he showed to Moreira, who was sent off in the 69th minute for hitting Schwab in the face with his outstretched hand, were correct, while the straight red he showed (after VAR’s suggestion, Evangelos) to Deligiannidis was also correct, marking with the caps on Tyson.

The compositions of the groups

Panserraikos (Kontis, 4-2-3-1): Hovan – Deligiannidis, Thymianis (24′ Bergström), Diamantis, Petavrakis – Oikonomou (66′ Sofianos), Moreira – Dunkerlouis, Peleas (66′ Staikos), Warda – Gouleri (76′ Mourgos).

Katsikas, Avlonitis, Gotzamanidis, Maskanakis and Papavasiliou remained on the bench.

PAOK (Lucescu, 4-2-3-1): Z. Živkovic – Vieirania (73′ Rafa Soares), Cangiora, Nasberg, Yoni Otto – Schwab (90’+4′ Tsigaras), Ozdoev (63′ Marcos Antonio) – Despodov, Murg (63′ Tyson), Constantelias – Samata ( 73′ Brandon).

Talimchanidis, Panagiotou, Ricardo and Tzimas remained on the bench.

Referee: Diamantopoulos

Assistants: Petropoulos, Spyropoulos

Fourth: Tsimenteridis

VAR: Evangelou, Fotopoulos

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