Greek Super League club PAOK will take a slender advantage to Switzerland on Thursday going into the second leg of theirChampions League second qualifying round, after defeating FC Basel 2-1 at Toumba on Tuesday evening.
PAOK fans had high hopes of successfully progressing after watching their team leading 2-0 against the Swiss with just 10 minutes remaining before the FC Basel snatched a precious away goal.
An excellent first half volley from PAOK’s Spanish midfielder Jose Canas fired the Greeks into the lead, whilst a second half goal from big Serb striker Aleksandar Prijovic doubled PAOK’s lead. However an 82nd minuted headed goal to Basel’s Albian Ajeti halved the Greek team’s advantage and gave the Swiss a valuable away goal to take back home.
The Swiss will also be encouraged by a number of clear cut chances they were able to create in the first half against the Greeks. It will be interesting to see whether PAOK go into the return match preparing to concede possession and play on the counterattack, or whether they’ll try and take the game to Basel. PAOK Coach Razvan Lucescu indicated in his post match comments that they would go to Basel looking for a win. He began his after match media conference by expressing condolences to the victims of the Attica fires: “First of all, I would like to say that my thoughts are with the families of those who have died in the tragic fire,” stated the 49-year old.
When asked about the match, Lucescu shared his delight with PAOK’s football: “Today, I am really happy with my players and the football which we displayed. Nevertheless, there is a feeling of disappointment for the goal which we conceded.”
“We will go to Switzerland in order to win the match and qualify. Overall, I think we had a really good transition from defence to attack. At this level, any mistake will be punished, Basel had two big chances because of our errors. Leo Jaba and Dimitris Limnios played great, they created lots of opportunities.”