PAOK traveled to Piraeus with a lot of new faces, and produced a decent performance in spite of the changes in personnel, but the visitors lacked a scoring touch and left Olympiacos’ home ground empty handed.

The coaching team kept Paschalakis between the posts, Rodrigo played in the back trio of defenders alongside Michailidis and Varela, while Lyratrzis was handed a starting place down the right flank, with Baba on the left.

Tsingaras came in for the suspended Schwab in central midfield, while Krmencik, Tzolis and Warda composed the attacking line-up.

PAOK began the game strongly and narrowly missed a golden chance to take the lead in the fourth minute. Unfortunately, Krmencik was thwarted by Jose Sa in a one-on-on situation, while following the rebound, Warda teed up Lyratzis, but he failed to hit the target.

Olympiacos threateded with two efforts from Bruma and El Arabi, but on 19 minutes PAOK were the team that missed another big chance to score, when Tzolis won possession in front of Sa following a cross from Baba , but the young strike sent his effort over the crossbar.

The home side then began to push further forward and began to threaten more as the half wore on. In the 32nd minute Masouras collected possession outside the penalty area, and with a surprise snapshot without taking a touch first he scored to make it 1-0.

The goal gave a psychological lift to the Red and Whites, who then went on to hit the post through Androutsos in the 36th minute, while Paschalakis prodiuced two important saves before half-time to keep the score at 1-0.

The rhythm of the game in the second half dropped off a little. Olympiacos enjoyed more of the possession, but only really threatened again with two shots late on in the match, with Fortounis’ effort hitting the frame of the goal and Bouchalakis misfiring with a shot. At the other end, PAOK showed the appetite to try and equalize, but their decision-making was poor in hte final third and thus failed to create a significant scoring opportunityu before the final whistle ended proceedings.

PAOK may not have got anything from the game, but they have secured second place in any case, after Aris could only manage a 0-0 draw with Panathinaikos and lost any mathematical possibilities of catching the Double-headed Eagle.

PAOK and Olympiacos will renew hostilities on May 22 at the ΟΑΚΑ in the Greek Cup final.

Team lineups:

Olympiacos: Sa, Semedo, Papastathopoulos, Holebas, Androutsos, Reabciuk, Bouchalakis, M’Vila, Masouras (66′ Fortounis), El Aeabi (77′ Hassan), Bruma (66′ Valbuena).

PAOK: Paschalakis, Rodrigo, Varela, Michailidis (76′ Crespo), Lyratzis (46′ Mihaj), Augusto, Tsingaras, Baba , Tzolis (76′ Konstantelias ), Warda (59′ Α.Ζivkovic), Krmencik (60′ Swiderski).