PAOK makes last 16 of Conference League, Reds crash out

PAOK has qualified to the last 16 of the Europa Conference League, beating Danish side Midtjylland in the penalty shootout after a 2-1 victory on the night, while Olympiakos suffered a 3-0 home loss to Atalanta to crash out of the Europa League.

PAOK looked really good for going through in the first half, leading 2-0 via goals from Andrija Zivkovic and Adelino Vieirinha.

Yet with 10 minutes to go Daniel Hoegh brought the tie back on level terms, as his goal for the Danish visitors took the match to extra time, with a 2-2 aggregate result.

In the added 30 minutes there was little action on either goal and the tie went to the penalty shootout, where PAOK won 5-3 to qualify thanks to keeper Alexandros Paschalakis saving a kick.

Olympiakos was unable to match previous performances in Piraeus for the European Cups and slumped easily to a 3-0 home loss to Atalanta, bowing out of the Europa League.

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg in Italy, the Reds tried a fairly cautious game against a prolific opponent, but a defensive error toward the end of the first half by Lala gave Atalanta the chance to open the score with Joakim Mahle.

In the second half Atalanta found more spaces for counter attacks and made two more goals, both by Ruslan Malinovskiy – the Ukrainian chose not to celebrate his goals on such a night that his country is invaded.

The Italians therefore went through on a 5-1 aggregate score.