The PAOK fighter has double claims and shows his medal

PAOK achieved a very big win at Kleanthis Vikelidis that keeps them alive in their claim to one of the top two spots in the standings. A win made all the more important by the way it came, with an epic turn of events in very difficult circumstances.

No matter how you look at it, the three points in the away derby with Aris had one big protagonist: Razvan Lucescu. And it’s not because the PAOK coach reacted to an object being thrown from the stands, strongly remembering a similar reaction Sergio Conceição had on the same field when the current Porto coach was still wearing the Dikefalos shirt.

Even if he says so himself, yes, he made an effort, but not to throw the bottle he picked up in the stands. However, in a tense derby, it takes a lot less to light the fuse… and Lucescu should be more careful.

But most importantly, the PAOK coach was one of the regulators of the derby’s progress. Mainly because he saw the mistakes of the first half – and in the selections he made in the starting XI – and decided early on to put things right. Lucescu revealed that his team’s preparations for the derby have been difficult as virus problems have cropped up alongside injuries to his players.

Be that as it may, his move to a treble early in the second half was the trigger to turn a game that rightly looked very difficult, if not lost, up to that point.

The presence of Tomas Kenziora in place of Joan Sastre at the right end of defense came as a bit of a surprise as the Spaniard has shown many games to be important to his team’s blocking function. In practice, it turned out that this wasn’t the right game for Sastre to stay on the bench. Luckily for his team, Lucescu acted early and threw the Spaniard into play and not just him.

He also substituted Dandas, who didn’t start in tune with the atmosphere of the field, and replaced him with the player who actually changed the outcome, Stefan Schwab. The Austrian won and converted the penalty that PAOK equalised, and was clearly more fighting than the young Portuguese.

Essentially, he and Tyson replacing Narey, the changes made at half-time, were the ones that led PAOK to surprise and victory. All moves executed from the bench, even Brandon’s replacing Oliveira – who started in place of the in-form Spaniard – seemed to have a positive effect on the biceps.

Fighting spirit, winning spirit but also quality

What did the two-headed man show on the always inhospitable Field of Mars? That he has the metal of a winner a team needs to star by managing to tip a halftime result against them for the first time of the season. He had attempted this, coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the home game against Asteras Tripoli, but only managed to equalize.

The fact that quality and work in training, which creates phases with such automatisms, will always play a role, even on nights when passion and fighting spirit are what counts, was also shown in the development of Zivkovic’s winning goal .

He still has a lot of finals to play

But the most important thing is that PAOK, returning from such a bad first part for him and going through a home that will logically also be difficult for the rest, that he can manage the pressure that comes from the need, in every game to win the playoffs. Lucescu’s team is doomed to go from game to game with the mentality that they have to play a final and the next one is against AEK in Toumba.

Razvan Lucescu’s selection was the most anticipated. For example, use Thiago Dandas alongside Douglas Augusto in midfield, or even Nelson Oliveira at the front of the attack instead of the really in-form but different quality Brandon Thomas.

Be that as it may, the fact that Loucescu didn’t announce the squad on Saturday, but only announced the final squad of 20 shortly before his team’s departure to Kleanthis Vikelidis, didn’t hide a great surprise. Vieirania is back in action, Ingi Ingasson has been sidelined with Aris, although he will be available to the manager in the derby with AEK.