You have to finish off games of this type early on. Especially when you are playing well and have the opportunities to do it. PAOK produced a good performance and was creative enough to… kill off the match much earlier. Showing  good ball circulation, neat build-up play both from midfield and from the wings, the Double-headed Eagle had absolute control of the match from the first minute.

Atromitos themselves attempted to build from the back rather than opt for the direct long-ball approach and hunted for the second balls, but the visitors struggled to cope with the home side’s well-organized pressing, and this pressure led them to make several mistakes. PAOK, however, all too often did not show composure in in the final third of the field to turn their superiority into goals.

The goal finally came from a penalty won by Ingason at the hands of Chatziisaias and was converted expertly by Kurtić. Razvan Lucescu’s went on to create more chances with Brandon Thomas, Khaled Narey and A. Živkovic (the latter two often switching sides), and also saw Oliveira’s goal disallowed for offside. But, the visitors leveled with a goal from nowhere in stoppage time from Tzovaras.

And while it seemed that PAOK would drop their first points of the fledgling campaign, Narey came to the rescue to make it 2-1 in the sixth minute of added time with an amazing shot from a difficult angle to earn the three points.

Team lineups:

PAOK (Razvan Lucescu): Kotarski, Vieirinha (76′ Sastre), Ingason, Koulierakis, Tsaousis, Dantas (76′ Biseswar), Kurtic (80′ Schwab), Augusto (80′ Filipe Soares), Narey, A.Zivkovic, Tomas (63′ Oliveira).

Atromitos (Chris Coleman): Gianniotis, Kivrakidis, De Bock, Chatziisaias, Suarez, Gonzalez, Kuen, Muniz (94′ Economidis), Robay (62′ Kjartanson), Klonaridis (80′ Tzovaras), Tsavidas (62′ Rotariu).