Honours even in titanic top two clash
Honours even in titanic top two clash
GREEK SUPERLEAGUE - MATCHDAY 9
SuperLeague leaders PAOK dropped their first points of the season on Saturday as their top of the table showdown against Atromitos ended in an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Peristeri Municipal Stadium.
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A first-half strike from Jose Angel Crespo gave Razvan Lucescu’s PAOK side the advantage. But to their credit, Atromitos did not give up and fought back in the second half to equalise through Roland Ugrai with 17 minutes remaining.
It was a fair result in what was a proverbial game of two halves with PAOK controlling the opening 45 minutes and Damir Canadi’s battling Atromitos team enjoying the better of the second half.
The result means its a case of as you were at the top, with PAOK now on 23 points leading second-placed Atromitos by two points following what was the first of two big derby clashes of Matchday 9’s so-called Super Saturday.
Later this evening, the Athens derby clash between Panathinaikos and AEK takes place.
THE MATCH
PAOK, who came into the match with one of the best league records in Europe on the back on eight wins out of eight, were the better side in the opening 45 minutes, making most of the running and causing the home side plenty of headaches.
Despite their overall dominance, however, PAOK found it tough to create clear scoring chances against a well-drilled Atromitos rearguard duright the opening 20 minutes or so of the match. And it was actually the hosts who almost scored against the run of play in the 18th minute when Ugrai hit the woodwork.
As the half wore on, though, PAOK moved through the gears and began to open up the home defence. And, five minutes before half-time, the breakthrough that PAOK were threatening finally came.
It started from the unlikeliest of sources when PAOK defender Fernando Varela, who had stayed up from defence for an attack, skipped past Atromitos’ Austrian midfielder Armin Mujakic and teed up Jose Angel Crespo, who finished clinically from just inside the penalty area.
PAOK were worthy of their 1-0 lead at that point, but after the half-time break, Atromitos seemed more confident and came out of their shell to test PAOK and get back into the game.
After a number of half-chances, their attacking play finally reaped reward in the 73rd minute. It came from a superb effort by the impressive Ugrai, the 25-year-old striker finding himself some space in the box to pick his spot and beat the dive of PAOK goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis.
STARTING LINEUPS
Atromitos: 25 Megyeri(GK), 4 Karasalidis, 44 Risvanis, 29 Strouggis, 19 Kivrakidis(C), 6 Bušuladžić, 15 Nascimento, 11 Bruno, 23 Sakic, 7 Mujakic, 17 Ugrai
PAOK: 31 Paschalakis(GK), 3 Matos, 5 Varela, 15 Crespo, 20 Vieirinha(C), 87 Cañas, 19 Wernbloom, 98 Jabá, 7 El Kaddouri, 21 Biseswar, 9 Prijovic
by Graham Wood
Image Source: onsports.gr
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