PAOK favourites to advance against troubled Basel
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - 2ND QUALIFYING ROUND (LEG 2)
| Basel | 21:00 (GR) | PAOK |
|---|---|---|
| Wed, 1-Aug |
AGONAsport’s Athan Stylos previews PAOK’s second leg away clash with FC Basel in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, after taking a 2-1 lead on aggregate from last week’s match in Thessaloniki.
OVERVIEW
PAOK will travel to Switzerland for the second leg on Wednesday night, confident of advancing to the next phase of UEFA Champions League qualifying after winning the first leg 2-1 in Thessaloniki. Their opponents, FC Basel, have had a tumultuous start to their season, having yet to win a competitive match after three tries, which resulted in the sacking of their manager, Raphaël Wicky, after last week’s first leg clash against PAOK.
Basel lost their first match of the Swiss Super League season 1-2 at home to St. Gallen before traveling to Thessaloniki and suffering a defeat with the same scoreline. FC Basel made the call to sack their manager and appointed current under 18s boss, Alexander Frei, as the interim manager until a new head coach is chosen. Their first game under Frei saw them play to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Xamax.
PAOK manager, Răzvan Lucescu, has stated that PAOK will travel to Switzerland with one goal in mind, to win the match, guaranteeing the Greek side progress to the next qualifying phase of the Champions League.
TEAM NEWS
Basel
Alexander Frei has decided to shake up Basel’s playing style and will implement “radical” changes to the lineup for Wednesday’s match. For the first time in over 1.5 years, Basel will play with a 4-4-2 formation. Frei seems to be a fan of playing with two strikers upfront as both Albian Ajeti and Ricky van Wolfswinkel are expected to lead the attacking line. After six months of shifting Fabian Frei to centre back under Wicky, Frei finally returned the player back to his natural position, in the centre of midfield, over the weekend.
New summer signing, Silvan Widmer, was absent for the first leg, but is expected to take his place at right-back after returning to the pitch against Xamax and managing to play out a full 90 minutes. However, in bad news for FC Basel, Raoul Petretta, Taulant Xhaka, and Zdravko Kuzmanovic will all miss the second leg due to injury.
PAOK
After suffering some issues with travel permits for Léo Jabá, Amr Warda, and Yevhen Khacheridi during the week, thankfully for PAOK, all three have been given the clear to travel to Switzerland for the second leg. The issue was resolved with the intervention of the Deputy Minister of Sports, George Vasileiadis. All three players will be available to Răzvan Lucescu on Wednesday.
Unfortunately for PAOK, Dutch winger Diego Biseswar will again miss the second leg due to his knee injury that he suffered at training in the lead up to PAOK’s first leg clash with FC Basel. Last week, PAOK were confident that his knee would recover in time, but the recovery process has taken longer than expected. He was not included in the 23-man squad that traveled to Switzerland.
It is expected that PAOK will go into the second leg with an unchanged line-up after an impressive performance at home last week.
POTENTIAL LINE-UPS
FC Basel: Omlin, Widmer, Cumart, Suchy, Riveros, Frei, Zuffi, Okafor, Kalulu, Ajeti, van Wolfswinkel
PAOK: Paschalakis, Matos, Varela, Crespo, Vieirinha, Canas, Mauricio, Pelkas, Jabá, Limnios, Prijović
RECENT FORM
FC Basel
25/7/18 PAOK-Basel 2-1 (1st leg, UEFA Champions League qualifier)
22/7/18 Basel-St. Gallen 1-2 (Swiss Super League)
14/7/18 Basel-Feyenoord (Uhren Cup)
13/7/18 Basel-Aarau (Club Friendly)
11/7/18 Basel- Wolverhampton (Uhren Cup)
PAOK
25/7/18 PAOK-Basel 2-1 (1st leg, UEFA Champions League qualifier)
16/7/18 PAOK-Graafschap 2-1 (Club Friendly)
15/7/18 PAOK-Antwerp 1-3 (Club Friendly)
13/7/18 PAOK-Gent 1-1 (Club Friendly)
10/7/18 PAOK- Steaua București 2-1 (Club Friendly)
THE REFEREE
Italian referee Paolo Valeri has been assigned the task by UEFA of officiating the second leg battle between FC Basel and PAOK. Valeri has many years of experience, starting his career in 2007 officiating fixtures in the Serie B before being promoted in the same season to the Serie A. He has now refereed over 150 fixtures in the Italian top flight. In the summer, Valeri worked as part of the VAR team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
In 2011, he was appointed to officiate qualifying games in the UEFA Champions League as well as the UEFA Europa League. This is not the first time he has taken control of a Greek club’s match as he officiated Asteras Tripolis’ match against Maritimo in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League 3rd round of qualifying.
Valeri will be accompanied by countermen Alessandro Giallatini and Alberto Tegoni who will be the assistant referees, while Maurizio Mariani will be the fourth official.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
FC Basel
In his press-conference, interim manager Alexander Frei stated that “The change in coach was no problem for the players. They have the job to give it their all for the club.”
Frei applied the pressure on PAOK saying that “They are the favourites and have the advantage over us, but we want to win tomorrow’s game and advance.”
After a disappointing start to the season, Frei believes that there are many positives for the FC Basel team and he remains certain that they will show a fighting spirit on Wednesday.
PAOK
PAOK manager Răzvan Lucescu is wary of FC Basel’s experience in the UEFA Champions League and believes the pressure remains on the opposition as they were the favourites going into the tie. “Basel had two great opportunities in the first game, which shows their quality. We must react and overcome these situations.”
Lucescu remained tight-lipped about the possible starting line-up for the second leg saying “We have a lot of players who want to be in eleven. We may have changes, maybe not."
“We are coming from a big win and we have confidence for tomorrow's game, knowing that in front of us we have a strong opponent."
OUTLOOK
Although, starting the tie as underdogs, PAOK have now become heavy favourites to advance to the next phase of Champions League qualifying as they seem the more stable club at this point in time, as well as taking a 2-1 advantage with them to Switzerland. PAOK will be looking to score an early away goal which would help kill the tie off.
It would be a remarkable effort if the low-confident FC Basel side came out and managed to advanced, considering the amount of personnel and tactical changes made throughout the summer and start of their season. However, their fans do not seem optimistic at this point in time.
PAOK fans have only been allocated 2,000 tickets for the second leg and their passionate fans will be doing all they can to will their time over the line to advance. PAOK will face FC Spartak Moscow in the third qualifying round if they successfully eliminate FC Basel.
SCENARIOS
PAOK Advance: With any Win; Any Draw; Or Loss by one goal if PAOK score two or more goals (ex. 3-2, 4-3. etc). PAOK are eliminated by a loss of two goals or more (ex. 2-0, 3-1, etc).
Basel Advance: With any win by two goals or more (ex. 2-0, 3-1, etc); Or a 1:0 win.
Extra Time: The match will go into extra time if Basel win 2-1. If a goal is scored in extra time, the above scenarios will take into affect, while a goalless extra time will send the match into extra time.
