PAOK were dominant from the first to the last minute of the match, created a plethora of chances, took the lead, and although they did not lock up the game until Kurtic’s added time penalty for the second goal, they did not pay the price. Now the team turn their attention to the forthcoming derby match with Panathinaikos on Sunday (06.02, 19:30) at the Toumba.

Razvan Lucescu’s team could have taken a comfortable lead early on, but did not manage to take advantage of the many clear cut opportunities they had through Vieirinha, Akpom, Kurtic and Ingason.

The solution was finally provided by Murg. The ball found its way to the Austrian in the penalty area in the 31st minute after a shot by Kurtic, and he kept a cool head to score and make it 1-0 to PAOK.

Apollon missed a good opportunity with a powerful long-range shot by Jakimovski, which also deflected slightly off Ingason, with Paschalakis producing a good save.

In the second half the pattern of the game did not change. PAOK dominated once more, but again Vieirinha , Sidcley and Akpom could not convert good chances that came their way. Meanwhile, at the other end, Paschalakis saved well from Tsiloulis in the 61st minute.

In the 79th minute it was A. Zivkovic’s turn to be denied by the home goalkeeper Verhulst after some excellent individual skill, and two minutes later Tsiloulis wasted Apollon’s best moment in the match as he failed to convert a chance from close range.

Apollon coach Gianliuca Festa played his last cards of the game by bringing on several players from the bench, but PAOK had the answers to anything the hosts could throw at them in the final stages. Then, in the 89th minute, after an excellent shot by Colak, Taylor surged into the penalty area and was impeded by Verhulst. The match referee Sidiropoulos and VAR decided that it was a penalty and Kurtic stepped up to coolly slot home the spot-kick low into the bottom right corner of the goalkeeper’s net to make the final score 2-0 to the visitors.

Team lineups:

Apollon Smyrnis: Verhulst, Dentakis, Lisgaras, jakimovski, Toutouarima (86′ van La Para), Fation, Castro, Baxevanidis (71′ Papageorgiou), Pamlidis (71′ Martinez), Gianniotas (59′ Tsiloulis), Signevich (59′ Ioannidis)

PAOK: Paschalakis, Sastre, Ingason, Michailidis, Sidcley, Tsingaras (93′ Soares), Kurtic, A. Zivkovic, Murg (73′ Schwab), Vieirinha (64′ Taylor), Akpom (73′ Colak).