The cup competition was held in the form of single knockout matches in four phases. PAOK beat OFI 2-0, AEK 3-0 and Panathinaikos 2-1 away in the semi-final. As for Olympiacos, they beat Atromitos on penalties (0-0 in normal time), defeated Aris 3-0 and Volos 4-1 in the semi-final. It should be noted that PAOK and Olympiacos were judged equal in scoring, since in these three games each team scored a total of seven goals. In the final, Olympiacos is formally the home team.

The team departed on Friday morning 23.05 for Crete. They will train at 13:00 at the “Theodoros Vardinoyannis”. The training will be open to the media for the first 15 minutes. PAOK’s squad will include 23 players, with the technical team making their plans without the injured Kalaitsidis, Tsitskas, Papanikopoulos and Krommidas.

• The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology will be used in the Super League Under-19 Cup final.
• The final will be broadcast live on the Novasports channels (NOVASPORTS 2 HD), the WEB TV of Novasports.gr as well as the Novasports channel on YouTube.
• In the event of a draw (the match is 90 minutes), a half-hour extra time is foreseen and if necessary a penalty shootout.
• Footballers up to 19 years old (born from 01.01.2006 onwards) are eligible to participate. Exceptionally, in the Under-19 cup matches, it is permitted to declare on the match sheet up to five players born in 2005. Throughout the match, the simultaneous participation of up to three players born in 2005 is permitted.
• Up to four players who are not eligible to play for the Greek national teams or do not have Greek citizenship (Greek identity card or passport) are permitted to be listed on the match sheet. Throughout the match, the simultaneous participation of up to two players who are not eligible to play for the Greek national teams or do not have Greek citizenship is permitted. In total, the participation in the eleven of each team and throughout the match, of nine players who are eligible to play for the Greek national teams is mandatory.
• Entry to the stadium will take place exclusively and only through nominal invitations

Preparation for the new season

The U19 of the 2025-26 season will be composed of the 2007 generation (the 2006 ones «move up to PAOK B»), the kids coming from the U17, plus possibly some younger ones. The team will continue to train for about two weeks after the final, gradually incorporating some younger ones. Preparation will begin on July 14 – like every year in Volakas – as the first championship game will be played at the end of August.

Europe, four years later

The last run of PAOK’s Under-19 side in the UEFA Youth League was not successful. The Double-headed Eagle then suffered two defeats against Zilina in the 2021-22 season and returned early to domestic competitions. Four years later, with the conquest of second place, which was secured with one matchday before the end by winning at home against Panathinaikos, PAOK returns to Europe, obviously aiming to do much better.

It is the first time that Greece will have two youth teams in the UEFA Youth League. Normally, only the champion team qualifies for the competition, occupying a place in the Domestic Champions Path. Given, however, that the Olympiacos men’s team won the championship and will be directly in the League Stage of the Champions League, the runner-up also gets the ticket for the corresponding phase of the Youth League.

According to paragraph 4 of Article 3 of the UEFA statutes: “If a club qualifies for both the Youth League group and the Champions Path, it automatically participates in the group. The vacant position created in the Champions Path is covered, in principle, by the second-placed team of the relevant league. In the event that the second-placed team has also qualified for the group, then the position remains vacant and is redistributed.”

PAOK, therefore, as the second-placed team, participates in the Domestic Champions Path, which will start on 17 September with Round 1 (30 teams, from which 15 will emerge). PAOK and 24 other teams enter Round 2 of the competition and along the way there is a crossover with the League Stage teams in the knockout phase.

The draw will be held on September 3 in Nyon, when PAOK will find out its opponent in Round 2. The matches are doubles and knockouts (the first are scheduled for 22.10 and 05.11).

Under-19s profile

The squad retained its main core from last year, the youngsters of the 2006 generation, to which were added those born in 2007 and champions in the 2023-24 season, in some matches players from 2005 also competed, while … the younger ones including Berdos, Krommidas and Toursounidis were also promoted. The majority of the players in this squad are internationals and several are already full professionals.

As for the total statistics recorded by the players in the championship and cup, let’s say that first in participations (25), were Kosidis and Almasidis, followed by Balde with 22, Avrampos, Polykratis, Papageorgiou with 21, Mythos and Kalaitsidis with 20 and Beleris and Koupenos with 19. Kosidis recorded the most minutes of play (2,034), followed by Almasidis (1,839), Avrampos (1,816), Polykratis (1,718), Beleris (1,710) and Mythos (1,595).

The top scorer is Mythos with 15 goals, Balde has nine, Kesidis six, Chatsidis four, Berdos, Kosidis and Bataoulas three each, while Polykratis recorded seven assists, Koupenos five, Papageorgiou four, Panikidis, Balde and Hatsides three each.

Goalkeepers: Vasilios Nikolakoulis, Vasilios Tsintsolis, Efstathios Belleris, Michael Pourliotopoulos

Defenders: Georgios Kosidis, Konstantinos Vyrsokinos, Pavlos Tsiotas, Georgios Koupenos, Panagiotis Tsitskas, Alkiviadis Avrampos, Efstathios Panikidis, Dimitrios Bataoulas, Konstantinos Polykratis, Saleh Haruna, Ioannis Karagiannidis

Midfielders: Vasilios Eleftheriadis, Bedri Dunga, Marios Kalaitsidis, Athanasios Papanikopoulos, Maksymilian Sznaucner, Vasilios Papageorgiou, Georgios Sapanis, Theodoros Papaefthimiou, Stelios Almasidis

Forwards: Iordanis Kesidis, Dimitrios Chatsidis, Christoforos Galtsev, Anestis Mythou, Mahamadou Balde, Ioannis Tsifoutis, Antonios-Panagiotis Tsitsilas, Emmanuel Tsombanis, Paschalis Stylos, Konstantinos Vryzas, George Krommydas, Dimitris Berdos

• The captains of the team are Almasidis, Papageorgiou and Polykratis.
• It should be noted that Grigoris Politikis and Antonis Theodosiadis were also in the squad at the start of the season but left the club during the campaign.

Coach: Petros Tsiapakidis

Assistant Coach: Ebenezer Hagan

Trainer: Vasilis Bilis

Goalkeeping Coach: Michael Psomiadis

Analyst: Konstantinos Boukouvalas

Doctor: Iraklis Giannaros

Physiotherapist: Vaios Papathanasis

Minder: Thomas Tseos

Team Manager: Alexandros Apostolopoulos