PAOK ideally completed its commitments before the end of 2023, when it passed Kaisariani with full football and played the newly enlightened Kifissia.

Lucescu’s men produced their most productive performance in this year’s Stoiximan Super League, finishing second in threat as their 15 final appearances were valuable 2.29 xGoals. The previous event happened three days ago in Tripoli when they beat Asteras 4-1. Thomas Murg’s star shone in this game. In Caesariani, Kirill Despodov was MVP.

The Bulgarian midfielder was one of six goalscorers for the Black and Whites and provided three assists, marking his most successful appearance for the Black and Whites. Tyson and Zivkovic were absent from these two games (Asteras and Kifisia), but their absence was never felt. And in this (especially at Kifissia) Despodov played an important role.

Despodov’s two great performances against Kifissia

Kirill Despodov was deployed on the right attacking wing, the position where Lucescu uses him most often, and the Bulgarian once again fulfilled his role. In fact, he was the player higher up the field (77) than Brandon Thomas (71) who turned further back on the field several times, as we can see in the Opta Stats/Perform graph.

Lucescu held him the entire game and Despontov finished the game with 58 actions with the ball. In fact, ten of them were in the Anagnostopoulos area. It was the highest performance by a Dikefalo player in the league, behind Tomas’ 11 appearances against Lamia.

In one of these ten actions, Despodov scored with a beautiful shot from deep. Where it stood out from Kifissia was the creation part. Created four finals All three even provided assists for his teammates (for goals from Thomas, Murg and Ozdoev).

At the same time he had four successful dribbles a record performance by a PAOK player in 90 minutes. Because Despodov was high up the pitch, he didn’t have many passes, but he had a very good scoring rate 26/32 precise passes.

The Bulgarian started perfectly at PAOK, but gradually experienced a slight decline as his role in Dikefalos is different to the one he had in Ludogorets. But now he shows that he is fully integrated, which is clear from both his appearances and his statements.

The summer addition of Despontov and the return of Murg gave Lucescu the opportunity to comfortably and successfully navigate the league and Conference League by splitting time and opening up the rotation. These two footballers were able to adequately fill the gap left by Živković and Tyson, who were missing in the last few games.

The management of the Super League announced that a board meeting will be held on Wednesday (December 27), the first item on the agenda of which will be the change of the summary schedule of league games are not the election of a new president following the resignation of Vangelis Marinakis.

The corresponding announcement states:

“It is announced that a meeting of the Super League Board of Directors will be convened via video conference on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.

The agenda items are as follows:

1. Change to the annual summary schedule of the Stoiximan Super League 1 (Men).

2. Open points from central sponsorship contracts from previous years.

3. Miscellaneous”.

More specifically, PAOK footballers Theoharis Tsingaras, Yiannis Michaelidis, William Paul Troost Ekong and Brandon Thomas were at the hospital for children with cancer on the occasion of the club’s Christmas event this year.

During the event, the footballers met and chatted with the children while giving them gifts and autographs as a small act of solidarity in a festive atmosphere full of joy and love. At the same time, the two partners undertook another act of providing financial support from the organization, thereby demonstrating in practice support for their valuable and demanding work.

“Through his actions, Stoiximan practically supports people who struggle with serious illnesses and fight their own battle every day. This Christmas, together with PAOK PAOK, we support the commendable efforts that the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer “STORGI” makes every day. with the aim of contributing to improving the everyday lives of the sick children and their companions who are staying in the “STORGI” guesthouse. We wish all children a speedy recovery and that they return home soon in good health,” said Ms. Ioanna Kozadinou, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Stoiximan.

MS. Anna Mouradidou, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at PAE PAOK, stated:

“The Association of Friends of Children with Cancer “STORGI” takes on an important role in caring for sick children and their families in northern Greece. This year, together with our sponsor Stoiximan, we are also strengthening the work of the “STORGI” hostel, which houses dozens of sick children. We stand by these life fighters and wish them a healthy year with more smiles.”