While the off-the-field war continues to rumble in the background, the Dikefalos tou Vorra continues to do what is needed on the pitch unaffected by it all. Even on the bad days. Volos produced an impressive performance at the Toumba but failed to leave Thessaloniki with a positive result.

Abel Ferreira brought in Rodrigo and Swiderski for the suspended duo Chuba Akpom and Leo Matos,while he selected Douglas in midfielder instead of Anderson Esiti compared to the previous match against Lamia.

In the first half PAOK was not at its best. The visitors managed to control a lot of the possession, but they did not manage to create many threatening moments, in contrast to the home side who had several good chances on the counter attack. However, those chances went begging, with Swiderski missing the best o the lot when he was sent through one-on-one with Volos goalkeeper Thanasis Garavelis.

In the second half, Ferreira’s players raised their collective games and Vieirinha and Josip Misic  both wasted glorious chances to open the scoring, before the breakthrough came on the hour mark after Dimitris Limnios had been fouled in the penalty area. Vieirinha stepped up to score from 12 yards and that proved to be the only goal action on the night.

PAOK claimed the three points and moved on to 52 points, lifting the Dikefalos tou Vorra into top spot ahead of Olympiacos, who are one point behind.

Team line-ups:

PAOK: Zivkovic, Rodrigo, Ingason, Varela, Giannoulis, Douglas, Mauricio (54’ Biseswar), Limnios, Vieirinha (87’ Esiti), Misic, Swiderski (71’ Lamprou).

Volos: Garavelis, Oikonomou, Dimopoulos (83’ Torres), Joao, Tsaousis, Tsokanis, Muniz, Dentakis, Rafael (77’ Lyratzis), Mantzis, Guarrotxena.