PAOK-Panserraikos: The “two-headed man of the north” begins the journey to retain the scepters

On Saturday night (20:00), o PAOK begins his journey to Stoiximan Super League of the new competitive season, with the aim of maintaining his “scepters” in the Greek league for the first time in his history!

The “two-headed man of the north” hosts him Panseraic (sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247, Novasports Prime) in Toumba, in the premiere of the two teams in this year’s championship.

Psychology in the classes of champions of Greece is not the best possible, since they come from painful exclusion from the continuation of his qualifications Champions Leagueas last Tuesday they were defeated 3-2 in extra time by Malmö and were relegated to the Europa League playoffs. There is no time for… introspection for the Thessalonians, since, in addition to tonight’s match against Panserraikos, next Thursday (22/08, 20:30), the first crucial game with Shamrock Rovers for the second European intercollegiate competition.

Understandably, Razvan Lucescu is expected to line up his side with a number of changes tonight, wanting to rest some of his key players who were strained from the battle with the Swedes, but also to have them ready for the game against the Irish. The Romanian coach cannot count on the injured for today’s match with Panseraikos Kotarski, Tyson and Otto, but also him Michaelidis who is serving a one-game ban due to cards. At the same time, he was also left out Daddy for discharge purposes.

The mission of PAOK: Tsiftsis, Talikhmanidis, Vieirinia, Sastre, Kenziora, Nasberg, Koulierakis, Rafa Soares, Thymianis, Kamara, Schwab, Ozdoev, Murg, Soretire, Constantelias, A.Zivkovic, Despodov, Tisundali, Brandon, Chalov.

On the other hand now, Panseraikos intends to enter this year’s championship with… acquired speed, after the his impressive presence in last year’s playouts, where he finished first and 7th overall in the final standings of the Stoiximan Super League. With him Michalis Grigoriou now on their bench, the “lions” made several additions and deletions to their roster, showing, at least on paper, that they have moved up a level compared to last year.

Tonight will be the first official game for the Serres team, which during its summer training gave a total of four friendlies with three draws and one win. In the first regular game, it was tied 1-1 with Levadeiakos, to follow the 5-0 victory over Niki Volos, and then the draws with Lamia (2-2, victory 3-2 pen.) and AEL (0- 0). Among the positives is the fact that he was not defeated in any of them.

As far as the competitions are concerned, the injured were left out Sofianos and Marinos, as well as the young Karamanolis, Papavasileiou, Mavropoulos, Vasilakos and Salvanos, while, as usual, the last transfer acquisition of the team was included in the mission, Petar Gigic.

The mission of Panseraikos: Gougesashvili, Katsikas, Tsombanidis, Bergström, Khantakias, Karasalidis, Diamantis, Petaurakis, Deligiannidis, Koutsogoulas, Katsoulidis, Staikos, Liassos, Kaptoum, Perutsi, Hadjistravos, Thomas, Deletics, Salazar, Maskanakis, Betancourt, Gigits.

Possible lineups:



PAOK (Razvan Lucescu): Tsiftsis – Vieirinia, Kenziora, Nasberg, Rafa Soares – Kamara, Schwab – Despodov, Murg, Tisundali – Chalov.

Panserraikos (Mihalis Grigoriou): Gougesashvili – Deligiannidis, Khantakias, Bergström, Petavrakis – Perutsi, Liassos, Staikos – Deletics, Salazar, Bedacore.

Referee: Vasilios Fotias

Assistants: Andreas Fotopoulos, Vasilios Nikolakakis

4th Referee: Alexandros Katsikogiannis

VAR: Angel Evangelou