Depending on themselves. Against everyone and everything. The way PAOK have learned to play. Anyone expecting an easy evening at the Toumba were to be disappointed. A spirited Levadiakos side came with determination, and found an ally in a referee who awarded them a penalty that will be debated over for a long time, and so the Double-headed Eagle played out another… «final».

PAOK started the game with determination and commitment to their plan, got the ball at their feet, and fired a warning shot in the second minute with a header from Thiago Dantas, and then in the 10th minute the Portuguese opened the scoring.

After an excellent through ball from Kargas, Narey raced behind the opposing defense, and played the ball back across the penalty area for the incoming Dantas to side-foot the ball home to make it 1-0.

Levadiakos’ response was immediate. Two minutes later LuaLua got himself one on one with Kotarski and tried to round the PAOK ‘keeper, falling over in the process. Diamantopoulos pointed to the spot to award the penalty. VAR disagreed, and although the referee went to see the replays for himself he still awarded a penalty, causing the PAOK crowd to erupt in fury as it was clear that there was no contact between the Levadiakos player and the Double-headed Eagle goalkeeper. Moutinho stepped up to take the penalty and he beat Kotarski , who guessed correctly but was unable to keep the ball out.

Razvan Lucescu’s players were not troubled by the visitors’ goal and continued to play their game with composure and patience, with Levadiakos closing the spaces and waiting to pounce on the counter attack.

The solution was finally provided by Dantas who, in the last phase of the first half, was presented with the ball as the visiting defenders failed to clear their lines, and made it 2-1 with a first-time shot.

In the second half, PAOK came on strong from the start, created some good chances, with the highlight being Konstantelias, who failed to find the target despite being clean through against Stojanovic. However, in the end, the goal came from the defenders. After a corner kick in the 61st minute, Kargas nodded on the ball, and Koulierakis rose to make it 3-1.

And while everything seemed that the Double-headed Eagle would lock up the game, Levadiakos found a goal out of nowhere as a fortunate effort by Chapras struck Kargas and out-foxed Kotarski to make it 3-2 and set up a grandstand finish.

Levadiakos had one more good chance until the finale with Germeyev’s shot, which was blocked by Kotarski , while Oliveira found himself one on one against Stojanovic in the 87th minute but his effort went wide of the post.

In the end, Lucescu’s players had the calmness to properly manage the rest of the match and get another crucial three points, before next Sunday’s derby date with Olympiacos.

Team lineups:

PAOK: Kotarski, Sastre (Vieirinha 80’/Nasberg 93′), Kargas, Koulierakis, Rafa Soares, Schwab (Filipe Soares 80′), Dantas, Narey (A.Zivkovic 72′), Taison, Konstantelias (Biseswar 80′), Oliveira.

Levadei: Stojanovic, Tzimopoulos, Vinicius, Vichos (Symelidis 78′), Tsapras, Panagiotou, Mechia (Sako 78′), Dabo (Jeremegev 67′), Moutinho, Lua Lua (Toro 56′), Nikas.