PAOK saves Greece’s face in Europe
Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and AEK suffered defeats on Thursday that deprive them of any chances of proceeding in the Europa League, but PAOK scored a famous victory in Germany over Eintracht Frankfurt to secure the top spot of its Conference League group.
Panathinaikos lost 3-2 at Villarreal, as its effort to bounce back for 3-0 down was left unfinished. The hosts led via Alex Baena, Santi Comesania and Jose Luis Morales, and the Greens tried with goals from Sebastian Palacios and Fotis Ioannidis to get back into the game.
AEK was a good match for Premier League side Brighton, but lost1-0 in Athens to a Joao Pedro goal early in the second half. The Greek champion was unlucky to hit the woodwork one minute before half-time.
If Panathinaikos and AEK lost in dramatic fashion, with their games on a knife’s edge till the end, the same cannot be said about Olympiakos, that suffered a nightmare at Freiburg to go down 5-0.
The Germans led 4-0 from the first half through a hat trick by Michael Gregoritsch and a goal by Kiliann Sildilla, and completed their routing of Olympakos with a Ritsu Doan strike in the second half. Olympiakos manager Diego Martinez is now said to be on his way out.
All three Greek teams have four points from five games and will fight for a spot in the next round of the Conference League, expecting victory in their final group game.
On the other hand, PAOK made Greece proud with a 2-1 victory at Eintracht that gives the Thessaloniki club the top spot and the ticket to the last 16 of the competition.
Tomasz Kedziora put the Greeks in front, Omar Marmoush equalized for the Germans and Andrija Zivkovic gave all three points to PAOK, that has got 13 five games.
