PAOK thrilled with meaningful win, AEK regret golden opportunities
 

In the 2018/2019 Super League season’s first major derby, PAOK defeated arch-rivals AEK 2:0 in Thessaloniki, in turn leaving Razvan Lucescu satisfied and Marinos Ouzounidis regretting missed opportunities.

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Inside a packed, atmospheric Toumba Stadium, both teams had early chances, in particular AEK as star Croatian forward Marko Livaja smacked the right post with a thumping drive. However, after defender Vasilis Lampropoulos committed a poor error at the back, Aleksandar Prijovic charged through to send a wicked effort over the stranded Vasilis Barkas. Prijovic then doubled his tally from point blank range in the second half, and despite Anastasios Bakasetas seeing his attempt hit the woodwork, PAOK held on for the 2:0 victory.

After the match ended, PAOK boss Razvan Lucescu shared his joy from the win and touched upon last season’s controversy: “This is a huge victory for us, it’s difficult for us to start analysing it now,” beamed the Romanian. “On Thursday, we played Chelsea, but we recovered in time and beat a solid, well-organised team 2:0. To be honest, I was shocked when I saw that we had to play Chelsea and AEK in consecutive matches, we had to make some changes to keep the team fresh. We can’t always play fantastic football, but the main thing is that we win.

In the 2017/2018 season, it was difficult when another team was unfairly crowned champions when we won the Super League on the pitch, but that’s in the past and today wasn’t about revenge. We move on.”

Serbian hitman Aleksandar Prijovic, who stole the headlines with two superb goals in Thessaloniki, was happy to finally score against AEK: “Most of all, I’m satisfied to win, my teammates created my scoring chances. This year, we have raised our expectations and I like that. The next match against Aris? I want to score in that game too! Yes, it’s great that we managed to beat AEK, but we have many important matches ahead of us and we’re working hard to improve further.”

For his part, AEK manager Marinos Ouzounidis rued the missed chances, but isn’t feeling downhearted after two consecutive losses in all competitions: “We have lost against Ajax and PAOK, but the end of the world hasn’t arrived,” mentioned Ouzounidis. “When the match ended, I spoke to the players and told them that defeats force you into looking in the mirror and showing your strength. We committed two mistakes and were punished each time. The opponents made 10 errors, we had plenty of scoring opportunities and hit the post twice, but the ball wouldn’t go in. I am not worried about the shape of this team.”

Anastasios Bakasetas stated that the best team didn’t win and refused to blame goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas: “We can’t rely on Vasilis in every game, the opponents were simply more efficient than us. PAOK were not the better team. I think that we were the strongest team on the pitch and I’m happy with our performance, but we didn’t come here to lose. The season is just starting and a long road is ahead of us.”

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: sport-fm.gr

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