Profile of Ghent, PAOK’s opponent in the ’16’ of the Conference League

Lucescu’s players will face an interesting challenge in the Europa Conference League as PAOK will face Gent after the draw has taken place.

No doubt they are not giants but the Belgians need attention because they are a balanced team with a good defense that can cause damage if it finds gaps in attack and also have good extremes.

Gent have had a good presence in Europe in recent years, while Belgian teams have risen in recent years, according to the UEFA rankings. In her squad, as we will analyze below, the left winger Tisundali stands out, but also our old acquaintance Vadis Otzitza-Ofoe, who played for Olympiakos.

The first game is scheduled for March 10th in Toumba and the second leg on March 17th in Ghent.

• coaching: Hein Vanhazebrook

The 58-year-old Belgian has spent two years on the team bench since taking office in December 2020. During this time he has most often opted for the 3-4-1-2 and his team gives a balanced picture. This year in 44 games counts 23 wins, 9 draws and 12 losses in all competitions.

• The star: Tariq Tisudali

At 28, he is having one of the best years of his career. Tisundali was born in Amsterdam but is a player for the Moroccan national team. He plays on the left side of attack and has 38 appearances, 19 goals and 7 assists this year.

• What has he done this year?

Fifth in the Belgian league table, Gent are trying to get a ticket to the league playoffs and not be led to the playoffs for the only conference ticket. It was eliminated at home by Brugge in the cup semi-final stage.

He started in his second qualifying round Europe Conference League. In the preliminary round they prevailed in the first game of Valerega with 4:0 and qualified despite the 0:2 defeat in the rematch.

Also in the second round it was difficult to qualify. The first leg in Belgium ended 2-2 against Riga and won 1-0 in the second leg.

In the playoffs he lost the first game in Poland against Rakov 0-1, but in Belgium he prevailed 3-0 and qualified. In the group he took first place ahead of Partizan, Anorthosis and Flora Tallinn.