Both Olympiacos and PAOK are on the verge of crashing out of Europe following damaging defeats in their respective first leg matches of the Europa Conference League (ECL).
Greece is seemingly about to officially find itself out of UEFA’s club competitions after its last two remaining clubs each suffered losses in the first leg of the Round of 16.
Olympiacos particularly is all but out of the tournament after losing 1-4 to Maccabi Tel Aviv at “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium on Friday morning (AEDT).
The Israeli outfit started the match with a bang as they quickly stormed to a two-goal lead inside the first ten minutes, first via striker Eran Zahavi (4′) and then through right back Ido Shahar (9′).
The “red-whites” got one back just four minutes later after marksman Ayoub El Kaabi headed in a lovely curling cross from deep by playmaker Kostas Fortounis, though Zahavi would restore the visitors’ two-goal advantage on the half hour mark.
Midfielder Dor Peretz put the game to bed with a fantastic header into the left side of the goal in the 74th minute, all but wrapping up the tie as well in the process.
Olympiacos will be especially disappointed with the outcome given they had the lion’s share of possession and did create chances, though were nowhere near as efficient as their opponents on the day.
PAOK, by contrast, is still with a hope of making it through but it is still quite bleak after they lost 2-0 away to Dinamo Zagreb.
The Croatian club took the lead 37 minutes into the game after captain and striker Bruno Petkovic pounced on a poor backward pass from PAOK defender Jonny Otto, with the forward eventually scoring from the rebound after his initial attempt was saved (37′).
The hosts then doubled their advantage again via a Petkovic goal, this time following a well-worked counter-attack which the Croatian forward finished off into the bottom right (71′).
The Thessaloniki giants still have a chance of progressing if they can earn a big result at “Toumba”, but there is no denying they are also in deep trouble of being eliminated from the competition.