Razvan Lucescu fielded a team with four changes compared to the cup game against Atromitos, giving starting berths to Tsiftsis, Vogliacco, Zafiris and Giakoumakis.

PAOK started with the clear intention of not leaving any room for their opponents to get into any rhythmn, and managed to finish the game to a large extent from the first half. On the one hand, they did not allow the home team to threaten, while on the other hand, the visitors were extremely productive, creating 16 chances, hitting the post as well as scoring two goals.

Vogliacco and Michailidis threatened first without finding a target, while in the 21st minute, Konstantelias had a double chance with Kutserenko making a great intervention from the Greek international midfielder’s effort after a pass from Zafeiris and he also missed the rebound. But, five minutes later, he didn’t miss. After an excellent cross from Kenny, Konstantelias headed in to make it 1-0.

With their foot on the gas, PAOK missed another good double chance in the 32nd minute with Kutserenko blocking Taison’s shot and Zafeiris sending the ball on to the crossbar on the rebound.

In the final phase of the first half, PAOK got what they deserved based on the pattern of play. An excellent cross from Andrija Zivkovic from the right, and a flawless finish from Giakoumakis made the half-time score 2-0 to PAOK.

In the second half, Panaitolikos tried to react and keep the ball, without PAOK allowing the home team to threaten, however. The final credits came in the 57th minute, when Taison played a through pass for Baba , the ball bounced after the Ghanaian turned and ended up at the feet of Konstantelias, who made it 3-0 from close range.

Lucescu proceeded to manage his players, making changes, and Pelkas had the ball in the net afterwards but the ‘goal’ was disallowed, before Kucherenko stopped a shot by Zivkovic and Jeremejeff also had a good chance, but he failed to score and the score remained unchanged until the final whistle.

PAOK took three valuable points by playing some great football and now turn their collective attention to the quarter-final of the Betsson Greek Cup against Olympiacos in Piraeus on Wednesday (14.01, 18:30).

Team lineups:

Panaitolikos: Kutserenko Mavrias (82′ Granath), Garcia (66′ Michalak), Sielis, Manrique, Satsias (87′ Nikolaou), Kojic, Enkololo (87′ Agapakis), Esteban (66′ Bregu), Matsan, Aleksic.

PAOK: Tsiftsis, Kenny, Vogliacco, Michailidis, Baba, Meite (71′ Kamara), Zafeiris (71′ Ozdoev), Taison (77′ Despondov), A. Zivkovic, Konstantelias (77′ Pelkas), Giakoumakis (71′ Jeremejeff).