PAOK qualifies in Europe, Olympiakos loses
Both Greek teams have advanced finishing second in their groups
PAOK has made it to the Europa Conference League knockout round playoffs with a home win over Gibraltar side Lincoln on Thursday, while Olympiakos played its worst game this season to date and lost at Antwerp for the Europa League.
The Reds went down 1-0 in Belgium, with only their keeper, Tomas Vaclik rising to the challenge. He was only beaten once, on the 6th minute of the game, by Michel Ange Balikwisha.
Manager Pedro Martins made three substitutions at half-time, but the result did not change for Olympiakos, that has had to settle for second in the group.
That means the Greek champion must face a daunting draw on Monday for the knockout round playoffs, facing one of the teams to have dropped from the Champions League – including Barcelona.
PAOK, on the other hand, strolled to an easy 2-0 result at home against semi-professional Lincoln Red Imps and finished runner-up in its group to make the knockout stages of a European competition for the first time in five years.
The Thessaloniki team had Andrija Zivkovic and Stefan Schwab on target at either side of half-time, with its visitor posing little threat for the Greeks.
PAOK finished the group stage with 11 points from six games and will await till Monday to find out its opponent in the playoffs for a spot in the last 16 of the tournament. Those games will take place on February 17 and 24.
