The Dikefalos tou Vorra faced two issues coming into this match. Firstly, a much-improved Tripolis side under recently-appointed coach Milan Rastavac, and secondly, several key players absent. In the end, however, PAOK had enough quality to chalk up another important win in a game which showed how important VAR is.<\/p>\n
PAOK<\/strong> began strongly and missed two decent chances to score within the first 10 minutes through Limnios<\/strong> and Mauricio. <\/strong>The home side kept pressing but they could not seem to find a way past Nikos Papaopoulos<\/strong> in the visiting goal. From their side, Asteras<\/strong> also began to push further up the pitch as the half-hour mark approached. And that is when PAOK<\/strong> finally managed to strike. Vieirinha’s <\/strong>forward pass was cut out by Luis Fernandez, but the ball fell kindly to Swiderski<\/strong> and the Polish forward did what he knows best by firing home a low shot to make it 1-0.<\/p>\n Proceedings were paused for a VAR<\/strong> review, and the referee Skoulas<\/strong> confirmed the goal stood, and the teams went into the dressing rooms at half-time at 1-0.<\/p>\n In the second half, PAOK<\/strong> needed around 10 minutes to threaten with Pelkas<\/strong> trying his luck from the rebound after Papadopoulos<\/strong> had blocked Limnios’ <\/strong>shot. That effort was wayward, but PAOK <\/strong>finally got the second goal their play deserved on the hour mark when after Mauricio’s <\/strong>shot, the ball found its way to The Joker,<\/strong> who scored the simplest of goals which also survived a VAR<\/strong> review.<\/p>\n In the 66th minute Asteras <\/strong>were reduced to 10 players and at that point the game looked over as a contest. In the 79th minute Lamprou <\/strong>netted from close-range from another Josip Misic <\/strong>assist to make it 3-0, while Asteras<\/strong> grabbed a consolation goal with five minutes left thanks to Marc Fernandez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That meant PAOK<\/strong> picked up another vital three-point haul to move top of the standings, ahead of the Olympiacos-Aris <\/b>match which was taking place later on. Olympiacos <\/strong>needed a win to reclaim top spot.<\/p>\n Team line-ups:<\/p>\n PAOK<\/strong>: (Abel Ferreira<\/strong>):\u00a0Zivkovic<\/strong>, Matos<\/strong>, Ingason<\/strong>, Varela<\/strong>, Vieirinha<\/strong>, Douglas<\/strong>, Mauricio<\/strong> (80\u2019 Esiti<\/strong>), Limnios<\/strong>, Misic<\/strong>, Pelkas<\/strong> (61\u2019 Lamprou<\/strong>), Swiderski<\/strong> (69\u2019 Akpom<\/strong>).<\/p>\n Asteras Tripolis<\/strong>\u00a0(Milan Rastavac<\/strong>): Papadopoulos, Ortega, Suarez, Matricardi, Kotsiras, Sito (59\u2019 Riera), Borja Fernandez (77\u2019 Bellocq), Valiente, Marc Fernandez, Luis Fernandez (69\u2019 Pasalidis), Jauregi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a Super League Matchday 19 contest match marked by difficult decisions for referees and the extensive use of VAR, PAOK overcame Asteras Tripoli 3-1 at the Toumba Stadium to claim all three points.","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":563604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1520,5],"tags":[1519,2250,2608,3886],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n