PAOK showed ‘Karaiskakis’ that it remains a contender

This time PAOK didn’t concede a goal in added time and thus achieved their first away win of the season.

He kept the victory that eluded him in Crete and Livadia in the theoretically most difficult game he has played this year against Olympiakos, and this one is capable of turning the knob.

PAOK went to Karaiskakis with their back to the wall and not only beat Olympiakos but did it their own way and that’s the most important thing. Dikefalos won by wanting to play his game, move the ball and carry it from his own area to his opponent’s area and he did.

He won by believing in his coach’s plan

He went into the derby with confidence and showed that he wants to implement his own plan. In the first phase of the game, he easily broke the pressure from Olympiakos and, with a build-up from the back zone, ended up getting the ball into the penalty area of ​​Tsolakis and Omar El Kandouri, which ended in a corner in the 2nd minute.

He even repeated it several times in the first part of the derby. And perhaps he opened the scoring with Papastathopoulos’ own goal, a lucky goal – as Lucescu also admitted – but one that didn’t go against the flow of the game

In the first 20 minutes, PAOK completely controlled the pace of the game and didn’t let the red-whites get in their way. Only that some mistakes by his own players eventually allowed the hosts to pressure him for a period of the game enough to shake the confidence and most importantly the calm the two-headed had in his blocking capacity. Period in which the compensation was collected.

The confidence of Lucescu’s players in the plan gave them calm again at the beginning of the second half, which began like the first. PAOK builds their attacks rationally, moving the ball comfortably and bringing it forward until they find a goal again to regain the lead.

A 60′ pass from Konstantinos Koulierakis on the right, forward control from Lyratzis, which he used to put Agibou Kamaras on his back and passed the ball to Narei, who knew how to send it into the Olympiakos net.

This time he lasted until the end

Given what had preceded Dikefalo’s previous two away games, it was logical after the 2-1 draw that his players would remain alert, alert and fully focused. In another instance, the penalty phase rescinded by VAR, which PAOK officially mocked as a “new Latvian rule”, would have shaken them, but this did not happen.

Receiving pressure and stages from Olympiakos in the latter part of the game was logical and expected, but this time Dikefalos persevered and clinched a great victory.

Dedicated to Stavros Sarafis, the victory that restores faith in the plan

The PAOK players, who lined up with black armbands holding up a shirt for Stavros Sarafi at the start of the derby, dedicated a three-pointer to Caesar at the end so important it can be a springboard for a fresh start in the league.

The only thing that is certain is that the victory over Olympiakos in “Karaiskakis” not only strengthened the self-confidence of his players, but also revived the confidence in the plan and the team and their coach, which had been severely challenged by the recent unsuccessful results.

PAOK needed a big win to prove in practice what Lucescu kept saying that the result doesn’t reflect his team’s work. The sequel will see if the knob has now been turned and the young two-headed begins to make up lost ground in the championship.