PAOK ready to take on Basel
PAOK ready to take on Basel
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - 2ND QUALIFYING ROUND (LEG 1)
AGONAsport’s Athan Stylos previews PAOK’s first leg clash with Swiss club FC Basel at the Toumba stadium in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.
OVERVIEW
The UEFA Champions League returns to Greece with PAOK hosting FC Basel at the Toumba stadium on Tuesday night. PAOK should be going into the tie confident of getting a positive result to take with them when they travel to Switzerland in one week’s time for the second leg.
FC Basel, a club who in recent seasons are familiar with the UEFA Champions League, have made it to the group stages in the last two seasons as well as advancing to the round of 16 last season. They finished 2nd in their respective group which featured English giants Manchester United, Benfica, and CSKA Moscow before being eliminated by eventual English Premier League champions, Manchester City, 5-2 on aggregate in the Round of 16 (they managed to defeat Manchester City 1-2 away from home in the second leg).
The Swiss Super League runner ups will be coming to Thessaloniki low on confidence after losing their first match of the season in league play 1-2 to FC St. Gallen, conceding a late goal in the 94th minute. Coming to Thessaloniki, Basel have been far from impressive losing 4 out of their last 5 games. They have had a very busy transfer period this summer losing some of their key players including star player Mohamed Elyounoussi to Southampton for 18 million Euros. Other high-profile departures include defender Michael Lang and goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík.
TEAM NEWS
PAOK:
PAOK manager Răzvan Lucescu, is expected to layout a similar team on Tuesday night which won the Greek Cup Final two months ago. Only two changes are expected in the PAOK team. Winger Djalma Campos, who started for PAOK in the Cup Final, has since departed the club for Turkey, giving the opportunity to Greek rising star Dimitris Limnos to start on the wing in one of the biggest games in the youngster’s career.
Unfortunately for PAOK, winger Diego Biseswar has been ruled out for the first leg with a knee injury suffered at training during the week. Lucescu has many options to replace Biseswar on the left wing with the likes of Lazaros Lamprou, Omar El Kaddouri, Amr Warda or Léo Jabá all able to slot into the attacking line-up. This gives the Romanian manager plenty of attacking depth to come off the bench. The Greek Super League leading goal scorer from last season, Aleksandar Prijović, is expected to lead the line from the start on Tuesday night after coming into PAOK’s training camp late at the conclusion of Serbia’s World Cup campaign.
Basel:
An out of form FC Basel team will be looking to bounce back away from home after their poor start in league play just two days ago. Manager Raphaël Wicky will set his team up to play with a 4-2-3-1 formation. In their first league game of the season, FC Basel struggled defensively which is something that will need to change quickly if they are to bounce back on Tuesday night. Although the Swiss giants controlled large parts of that game, they were vulnerable to the counter attack which is something that PAOK will look to take advantage of in the first leg.
Problems have continued for Basel with news that their right back, Silvan Widmer, who signed on this summer from Udinese, has not made the trip to Thessaloniki after being forced off due to injury over the weekend. This has left Raphel Wicky with plenty of headaches at the selection table ahead of Tuesday night’s clash.
POTENTIAL LINE-UPS
PAOK: Paschalakis, Matos, Varela, Crespo, Vieirinha, Canas, Mauricio, Pelkas, Jabá, Limnios, Prijović.
FC Basel: Omlin, Petretta, Balanta, Suchy, Riveros, Die, T. Xhaka, Oberlin, Zuffi, Kalulu, van Wolfswinkel
RECENT FORM
PAOK: WLDWL
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)
3/7/18 PAOK-Nordsjaelland 1-2 (Club Friendly)
FC Basel: LLLLW
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)
7/7/18 Illertissen-Basel 1-3 (Club Friendly)
THE REFEREE
UEFA have appointed English referee, Robert Madley, to be in charge of the Champions League second round qualifier. The 32-year old is a regular English Premier League referee who made his debut in the Premier League back in 2013. Madley refereed last year’s FA Community Shield between Chelsea and Arsenal. His assistants will be Ian Hussin and Marc Perry, while the fourth official will be Jonathan Moss.
OUTLOOK
A sold-out Toumba stadium is expected on Tuesday night which will create lots of energy for the home team. FC Basel can expect a hostile reception when they enter Toumba Stadium, but the pressure will remain on PAOK to win the first leg at home. If PAOK advance past FC Basel over this 2-leg affair, they will then be drawn to face Spartak Moscow in the next phase of the Champions League qualifying rounds. However, if PAOK fail to overcome FC Basel they will be drawn to face either Viitorul or Vitesse in the third qualifying phase of the Europa League.
PAOK manager Răzvan Lucescu said in his press-conference yesterday that “Basel has the experience in the Champions League, even if they’re not in the best possible condition, they will be difficult games.” He did state that he had full confidence in his players to go through to the next phase of qualifying.
WHERE TO WATCH
Watch it live from AGONAsport here, available WORLDWIDE except in Greece and Cyprus! Full TV listings for the USA, Canada, Australia, and Greece can be found here.
by: Athan Stylos
Thank you for visiting AGONAsport.com, the only English based website for Greek sports fans across the world! Like us on Facebook , follow us on Instagram, and Twitter for all the latest news in Greek Sports!