European qualification for Under-19s
An explosive five minutes at the end of the match was enough for PAOK to score twice, win 2-0 against Akureyri and qualify for the third round of the UEFA Youth League, where they will face Legia Warsaw. With two goals from Antonis Aretis, PAOK’s youngsters prevailed more comfortably than the final result suggests, in the match that took place on Wednesday afternoon at the Serres Municipal Stadium.
PAOK’s young guns played with the backing of many of the club’s fans, who never stopped singing throughout. Of course, the return of Dimitris Hatsidis, almost a month after his injury, was also a pleasant surprise.
It is no exaggeration to say that the first 45 minutes was an attacking monologue by PAOK with at least eleven final goal attempts, six of which were on target. But despite that, none of them found the back of the net.
It is true that PAOK were not as efficient and decisive as they should have been, but given that their goal were not threatened at all, they found a way to score twice in the last five minutes of the match. In the 85th minute, Hatsidis passed to Aretis, who opened the scoring, and in the 89th minute, Aretis again, after an assist from Tsiotas, made the final score 2-0.
Our U-19 team are already thinking about the next match in the championship, on 22.11 against Kifissia, as there will be a break, given that nine of our players were called up to the Greece U-19 squad.
Team lineups:
PAOK: Belleris, Tsiotas, Dunga, Kosidis, Apiatsionak, Sznaucner, Papadopoulos (62′ Gioka), Tsifoutis (62′ Hatsidis), Toursounidis (86′ Papanikopoulos), Balde, Gravvanis (71′ Aretis).
Akureiri: Ingolfsson, Thordarsson (86′ Birgisson), Petursson (78′ Gunnbjartsson), Sevarsson V., Finnbogasson (78′ Johansson), Robertsson (86′ Johansson), Sevarsson V., Kristinsson, Meira, Hiartasson (60′ Gretarsson).
