With the air given to it by the qualification in Polis, Olympiacos with many new faces in its 11, defeated PAOK 2-1 in “G. Karaiskakis” in the 6th matchday of the Super League playoffs.
Jose Luis Mendiliber went ahead with an extensive facelift of Olympiakos with eight changes after the epic qualification to the Conference League in contrast to Rasvan Lucescu who had just three changes in the 11 after the exclusion of the “doubleheader” from Europe…
The match had a fast pace from the start with both teams looking for their chances mainly from the wings. In the 9th minute, Navarro’s goal was correctly disallowed for the scorer’s offside. In the 15th minute, following a foul by Tzolakis, Navarro scored again in a four-on-one with Kotarski, but this time too the goal was canceled through VAR…
Olympiacos insisted with balls on the back of the opposing defense to look for Navarro, Opolios came forward again in the 25th minute, was knocked down by Koulierakis and won a penalty. Podense executed it, Kotarski saved but Kinney took the rebound and opened the scoring in the 27th minute (1-0).
First good phase for PAOK in the 43′ but Zifkovic was late from an advantageous position and missed the opportunity.
In the second half, PAOK tried to press as Olympiacos gave space and counter-attacked. In one of them, in the 61st minute, Pontense single-handedly took out Martins, who slotted home to make it 2-0. The visitors protested for a foul well in advance, but the goal counted.
In the 77th minute, Baba’s shot was saved by Tzolakis and in the next minute, Koulierakis’ header went wide. In the 2nd minute of stoppage time due to a mistake by Retsu, Zifkovic made a cross and Marcos Antonio reduced the score to 2-1.
The Portuguese Nogueira “yellowed” Ambey, Koulierakis, A. Zifkovits, Bamba, to the goalkeeper Zifkovits, while he removed P. Konstantinidis from the bench.
OLYMPIC: Tzolakis, Kini, Retsos, Abi, Richards, Ciquinho (78′ Ese), Ibora, Horta (85′ Carvalho), Martins (78′ Masouras), Pontense, Navarro (85′ El Caabi).
PAOK: Kotarski, Sastre (79′ Otto) Kenziora, Koulierakis, Baba, Meite (74′ Schwab), Ozdoev, Murg (59′ Despodov), Tyson (79′ M. Antonio), Zivkovic, Tomas (59′ Samata).
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