PAOK through after stylish goal fest
PAOK already had one foot in the last eight of the Greek Cup before Wednesday’s second leg Round of 16 tie against OFI. But the home side still made sure to give the supporters who turned out at the Toumba – and those watching on television – value for their money, with an emphatic 4-1 win over the Cretans to secure an overall 7-1 aggregate triumph.
Abel Ferreira handed some of the team’s fringe players a place in the starting XI, with Miroslav Stoch and Lampros Lamprou getting the nod from the Portuguese coach. Mauricio and Douglas, who were both coming back from injuries, also started in midfield and Alexandros Paschalakis was selected between the posts for the second successive cup match.
The Dikefalos tou Vorra began strongly with urgency and passion, and it was clear that they had an appetite to put the tie beyond doubt as quickly as possible.
Lamprou opened the scoring after 12 minutes with a brilliant individual goal, scoring his first goal for the club in his third competitive appearance. Ferreira’s players continued to press the visitors and Dimitris Pelkas doubled the advantage in the 20th minute from the penalty spot after Konstantinos Giannoulis had fouled Akpom.
OFI pulled a goal back eight minutes later in fortunate circumstances, with Korovesis’ shot taking a heavy deflection off Rodrigo and beating Paschalakis. The score remained 2-1 up to half-time.
PAOK emerged from the interval with a clear eagerness to play attractive football, and with that came a plethora of scoring chances. After 55 minutes, following a period of intense pressure from the home side which involved Lamprou hitting the post with an effort and Oscar Whalley producing a superb save to deny Douglas, the ball found its way to Pelkas who scored from close range to make it 3-1.
Two minutes after the hour mark, Akpom latched on to an excellent pass from Pelkas, only to fail to hit the target from a good position, while Pelkas also hit the woodwork with a powerful shot on 64 minutes. Whalley then came to the rescue for OFI again after 77 minutes to deny Lamprou, but he couldn’t prevent Swiderski from making it 4-1 shortly afterwards from Pelkas’ assist.
Another highlight of the match was also the introduction of Under-19 defender Giannis Michailidis, who came on to replace Fernando Varela with 16 minutes left.
PAOK ended this tie with a 7-1 aggregate scoreline to overcome what had expected to be a tricky opponent in OFI, and will now await to see the identity of its opponent in the quarter-finals.
Team line-ups:
PAOK (Abel Ferreira): Paschalakis, Rodrigo, Ingason, Varela (74’ Michailidis), Giannoulis, Mauricio (59’ Esiti), Douglas, Lamprou, Stoch (78’ Swiderski), Pelkas , Akpom.
OFI (Giorgos Simos): Whalley, Korovesis (46’ Braun), Marinakis, Giannoulis, Bolakis, Nastos, Staikos (61’ Mellado), Sournakis, Ferreyra, Nikokyrakis, Manos.
