The January marathon of matches started with a victory for PAOK. Amid an electric atmosphere created by their fans at a packed Toumba, the Double-headed Eagle completely dominated Aris and secured an important three points.

PAOK came out in determined mood, with a clear desire to take control of possession and managed to do so from the first minutes. In the first 10 minutes, the strong one-on-one duels taking place all over the pitch did not allow much quality football to be played, but then the home side increased the tempo and penned Aris back in their own half. The visitors’ chief concern was to keep PAOK away from Cuesta’s goal, and try to create a threat on the counter-attack.

PAOK threatened first with Ingason, and moments after the Icelander’s effort, Bognar awarded a penalty after some VAR assistance, for Iturbe’s handball in the box. Schwab took the spot-kick, but Cuesta parried the Austrian’s effort onto the crossbar and the ball bounced to safety.

In the 29th minute, both teams missed good chances with Oliveira initially unable to beat Cuesta, while Iturbe then missed the chance to put Aris ahead.

In the 32nd nminute, Koulierakis rose for a header from a good position, but the ball went just past the post. While two minutes later, Narey recevied the ball from Konstantelias and fired in a shot, but his effort struck the post as the home side were again denied an opening goal.

Narey and Oliveira threatened again in the first minute of added time at the end of the first half, and it provied the decisive moment for PAOK to take the lead. After a corner, Koulierakis nodded the ball on and Ingason was there to make it 1-0 with an impressive scissor-kick.

In the second half the pace of the match dropped considerably, and the two teams did not give much away, meaning that chances were at a premium at both ends. Still, there were a couple of opportunities for each sie, with Iturbe for Aris and A.Zivkovic for the home side both failing ot find the target.

In the 70th minute, PAOK missed a great opportunity to make it 2-0 with Douglas Augusto firing in an excellent shot that was saved brilliantly by Cuesta. The rest of the match was mainly about game management, with Aris not managing to threaten the black and white defense at any point, and Razvan Lucescu’s team holding their own to secure the 1-0 win and collect the three points.

Team lineups:

PAOK: Kotarski, Sastre, Ingason, Koulierakis, Rafa Soares, Schwab, Augusto, Narey (76′ Biseswar), Konstantelias (82′ Filipe Soares), A. Zivkovic (87′ Murg), Oliveira (77′ Brandon).

Aris: Cuesta, Odubajo, Peersman, Fabiano, Brabec, Darida (79′ Camacho), Etebo, Mateo Garcia, Iturbe (63′ Garcia), Mancini, Gray