Victory balsam
PAOK clinched what was a huge 2-1 away victory against Olympiacos in Piraeus on Monday night, showing self-confidence, quality, and with five players under the age of 22 in the starting lineup, Razvan Lucescu’s side produced a convincing response to the recent mini-crisis created by the previous matches.
Against gods and demons, injuries and bad luck, and even the referee and VAR, Lucescu’s men held on to remain in the top five of the standings.
PAOK started the match ideally, and by building attacks with confidence from the back, the visitors managed to create defensive imbalances for Olympiacos. Omar El Kaddouri’s early effort was a warning shot, before a corner swung in by Marios Tsaousis in the ninth minute brought the opening goal for the Double-headed Eagle after home defender Papastathopoulos accidentally headed into his own goal.
At that point and without Olympiacos pressing much, some nervousness and individual mistakes lead to the home side getting in a good position in Kotarski’s penalty area. The hosts tried to break PAOK’s defensive line from the wings, and on one such foray forward a cross was swung in by Reabciuk, and James Rodríguez rose to meet the ball perfectly to equalize with a header in the 37th minute.
The second half saw PAOK hungry for another goal. And this time they got what they deserved for their efforts. Khaled Narey received Lyratzis’ smart pass inside the box and the German then sent an arching shot into the top corner of the young Tzolakis’ net.
And the modest resistance from the home side would have come to an end even earlier if match official Treimanis hadn’t made an incredible «backflip» for what looked to be the most obvious penalty after Oliveira was sandwiched by Ba and Tzolakis. VAR made the call to him and instead of apologizing for wasting his time, the Latvian vindicated the VAR official by taking back the penalty that would have been given even by… Valbuena.
This time the PAOK players kept their cool though, and the final score did not change, with PAOK getting what they deserved. A victory which acts as the balsam for the wounds that were opened in the team’s last few previous matches.
Team lineups:
Olympiacos: Tzolakis, Reabchuik, Papastathopoulos, Ba (84′ Ui Jo Huang), Vrousai, M’Villa, In. Huang, Ang. Kamara (65′ Masouras), James (71′ Valbuena), Gary (71′ El Arabi), Bakambu.
PAOK: Kotarski, Tsaousis (70′ Sastre), Koulierakis, Ingason, Lyratzis, Kurtic, Dantas (90′ Schwab), El Kaddouri, Augusto (84′ Filipe Soares), Narey, Oliveira.
