Glorious night for PAOK in Europe, not for the Reds
PAOK scored a precious road win over Copenhagen on Thursday to climb to the top of its Europa Conference League group table, while two hours later Olympiakos went down at Eintracht Frankfurt for the Europa League.
The Reds had too many gaps in defense to avoid defeat in Germany, going down 3-1 to their in-form host.
Colombian Rafael Borré scored from the spot on the 26th to put the Germans in front, but Youssef El-Arabi responded for Olympiakos in the same fashion four minutes on.
The first half ended with an injury-time goal by Almamy Touré for the hosts, with Daichi Kamada completing Eintracht’s victory on the 59th.
The Greek champion has dropped behind the Frankfurt team, in second, with six points from three games.
PAOK made the most of Copenhagen’s errors to win 2-1 in Denmark and become the favorite for winning the group, given also it has two of its last three games at home.
The red card shown to Copenhagen goalkeeper Kamil Grabara from the ninth minute tipped the balance clearly in favor of the Greek Cup holders. Sidcley opened the score on the 19th and Andrija Zivkovic doubled PAOK’s lead on the 38th. Pep Biel pulled one back for the Danish team.
The result means PAOK has moved to the top of the table with seven points from three games, one point above Copenhagen.
In two weeks’ time the Greek teams will play the reverse fixtures, with Olympiakos hosting Eintracht and PAOK entertaining Copenhagen.
