Until now, PAOK has been making life difficult for themselves despite playing well. As Razvan Lucescu has said, «we have to play fantastically to win because when we play just well we have a hard time». This time, however, the Double-headed Eagle did not play well in their previous match. They produced a poor performance, but they did it at the wrong time (not that there is actually a right time). The international breaks so far have proved to be some thing that affect the team’s concentration levels.

And so PAOK were defeated by Atromitos, were given a tough lesson, the one that says «there are no easy games», and now the squad are called upon to produce an appropriate response against the challenge of Slovan Bratislava. Yet another «final» with the prize of qualifying for the next phase of the UEFA Europa Conference League on offer.

In training on Tuesday (23/11), the players who played against Atromitos followed a recovery and wind-down program, while the rest of the group worked on their physical fitness, ball movement and tactics.

The pleasant news of the day is that Mitrita has finally overcome the injury that was kept him out and returned to full training in order to be at Lucescu’s disposal. Meanwhile, Vieirinha, Douglas Augusto and Oliveira continued their respective individual recovery programs.