PAOK is now seven points behind the leaders and must now find a way to overturn the situation in the most difficult part of the season. Most of all, however, the team needs to «find itself» again and produce some good performances on the pitch.

The match began perfectly for the Dikefalos tou Vorra. Following a great passage of play between Dimitris Giannoulis, Omar El Kaddouri and Chuba Akpom, the latter scored with a well-placed shot from inside the penalty area after just four minutes to make it 1-0. PAOK tried to kick on from their and lock up the result in the first half, creating several chances but failing to capitalize.

Then, against the run of play, Xanthi levelled in the 18th minute with Lisgaras’ powerful header from a corner. The rhythm of the game dropped after that goal and the teams went into the dressing rooms at 1-1, with Varela’s injury PAOK’s big concern at that point.

In the second half, PAOK went in search of a winning goal straight away, attacking at every opportunity. In contrast, the home side looked content to sit back, try and defend, and hit PAOK on the break. PAOK kept plugging away, but clear chances were hard to come and in the end came away from Pigadia with a point.

Team lineups

Xanthi (Giorgos Paraschos): Abad, Casado, Lisgaras, Karasalidis, Baxevanidis, Camara, Teseira (85′ Thimianis), KOvacevic (69′ Barrientos), Strugeon (96′ Durickovic), Terki, Faucher.

PAOK: (Abel Ferreira): Paschalakis, Vieirinha , Varela (42′ Matos), Ingason, Giannoulis, Douglas (75′ Swiderski), Misic, Lamprou (64′ Biseswar), Limnios, El Kaddouri, Akpom.