PAOK’s historic appointment and the keys to qualifying

PAOK in Ghent has an appointment with history. The Conference League is definitely a more passable event, but to be competitive and go far in Europe you have to be at a really good level of competition. Lucescu proved that he is a great coach who managed to change the bad lyrics in his team during the season and create a team with a specific identity.

The Conference League gives us the opportunity to build the future of Europe

To finish 16th in the tournament, he didn’t have to go through a giant. He is fighting to qualify for the quarter-finals against an opponent who is within his means.

However, it goes without saying that to pass the Danish championship and win a team that is 5th in the Belgian championship, you need to be healthy. Because we’ve seen in the past that if you haven’t built a competitive base, if you haven’t built a solid team, you can still be left out of Velez Mostar and Astana.

As an organization the conference league offers Greek clubs the opportunity to claim a major European award. It’s a great thing to be fighting for the quarter-finals of an international tournament. It also offers our clubs the opportunity to lay the groundwork for their own brighter European future and of course climb the UEFA rankings and win a team.

Lutsescu’s PAOK has clear principles

Midtjylland and Gent are teams that a Greek must be able to rule out. However, to be successful, he must have put together a team that plays a specific football. Having a competitive orientation, stable and natural protagonists.

Lucescu proved that the administration rightly gave him the biggest contract the club has ever offered to a coach working in our country. He successfully faced a very difficult situation and managed to turn a season that seemed lost. With PAOK in 16 in Europe and in the semi-finals of the cup, the season is open to some big wins.

But no matter what, even if he doesn’t advance in the two competitions, the Romanian coach has achieved something great this year. He built principles of football that, to a competitive level, allow him to impose his own desires, even with his game plan, and enabled Kurtic to become the leader of this year’s PAOK.

He managed to improve his defensive function by playing a slow paced football with controlled possession. Aside from the facial changes from the decisions Lucescu made overall, his own calm possession allowed him to improve his defence.

Because in modern football it has evolved a lot, knowing how to use possession is the surest way to defend safely, to have as much possession as possible and not to make mistakes in possession. PAOK, which plays with a lot of safe passes, has made a huge improvement in this area.

So he laid the foundations for a championship-capable team to emerge with targeted transfers in the summer.

But those are the talks that will happen at the end of the season. However, the fact is that Lutsescu’s work created the conditions for PAOK to face an opponent at the level of Ghent.

He has to cope with two major absences

Judging from the picture of the first game and the ability shown by PAOK not to give the Belgians a single clear chance, he would have been the favorite if he hadn’t received two “stupid” yellow cards. It is cruelly unfair and difficult to handle that he will play this very important game without his two best players. Without its leader (Kurtic) and the best footballer of the attacking quartet (Zivkovic).

Razvan Lucescu prepares his team without the two players who solved his goal problem.

This year PAOK scores some goals from the position of forward, the midfielder of the staff is Augusto, whose normal position is from 6 to 8, on one side plays the creator Biseswar. In short, PAOK is lucky that the goal problem will be solved primarily by Kurtic in the big games and Zivkovic

In Gent, Lucescu badly needs new protagonists. With the image he had in the first game, with the difficulty that Gent seemed to have in opening up their defense and creating clear chances, it would be difficult for PAOK to lose qualification . . But those two absences are really hard to deal with.

In addition, Kurtic signed the big victories of this year PAOK. Zivkovic is also by far the highest quality midfielder Dikefalos has. They understand it takes a lot of effort and play from his substitutes.

He needs to get a big game from Swab

Since PAOK was formed, it is necessary for the soccer player playing between Augustos and Tsigaras to have a significant presence. Holding a ball, spreading it safely, pushing into both areas. Swab is a good footballer, he just moves in the same places as Kurtic, who is a tier up and has rare efficiency.

When Lucescu realized he didn’t need Swab next to him but needed footballers with different elements for support, the Austrian finished second and Kurtic took over. In Ghent, however, PAOK will need a strong game from Swab so that the gap to leader Kurtic is not visible. In order to achieve its goal and get the qualification, PAOK has a great need for a great swab.

The weight of the attack will fall on Akpom and Mitritsa

Based on the picture of the first game, the first goal will be to qualify with a score of 0-0.

But if he needs a goal, he has to find it from another player. May Akpom’s goal in the delays with PAS give him the confidence he needs for the Belgium game. Akpom is not having a good year this year, but often the forwards gain momentum and score back-to-back goals. It was a very pleasant fact that the Englishman scored in the delays in the playoffs premiere, I hope something similar will happen in Belgium.

In football, through change, you gain something and you lose something. PAOK in sovereign ball possession, in terms of execution quality, threat and personality loses a lot due to the absence of Zivkovic. With Zampa not on the European list and Kantouri out, Mitritsa will inevitably take the Serb’s place. Romanian has different elements. He’s faster and more upright than Zifkovic. He has daring in his game, he goes straight up, runs towards the opponent with the ball.

Lucescu capitalizes on that audacity, which he shows in the latter part of games when opposing backs are tired and he has a busy schedule, especially in 2022. However, he will have to start in Gent. I remind you that in Denmark, with Midtjylland, the decision to found Mitritsa was disastrous. PAOK couldn’t stop Anderson’s back and forth due to his own loss of possession and the rise of the defender playing on his side. Lucescu needs to use his speed as an additional weapon, but he knows that the easiest way to open up his defense is to lose the ball. So the Romanian, who plays different and bolder football than the rest of the team, should be careful but at the same time dangerous for the opponent.

PAOK managed to create games with few stages and enforce its own slow pace in the three KO games. He conceded just two finals at home against Midtjylland, four at Toumba in a 120-minute game, just two in the first leg against Gent. It is certain that by this logic he will look for the big qualifier in Belgium.