Narrow wins in Europe for PAOK, AEK and Panathinaikos
Three Greek teams debuted this week for this season in Europe, and they all scored narrow home wins over theoretically inferior opponents.
On Wednesday PAOK hosted Borac Banja Luka for the Champions League and won 3-2 at Toumba. Kostas Koulierakis scored twice in the first half, but between his goals he conceded a penalty for a freak handball that Sebastian Herrera scored from.
Before halftime Enver Kulasin equalized for a second time for the Bosnians, but six minutes into the second half William Ekong restored PAOK’s lead and gave it this narrow victory ahead of next Wednesday’s return leg in Banja Luka.
Also on Wednesday, AEK beat Inter Club d’ Escaldes of Andorra 4-3 for the Conference League, in a game where the Greeks led 4-0 through goals from Robert Ljubicic, Levi Garcia, Mijat Gacinovic and Harold Moukoudi.
However the Andorran side fought back in the last half-hour and scored through a Domagoj Vida own goal, a Sascha Andreu penalty and a Viti Martinez goal to return home with a respectable 4-3 defeat having the second leg next Thursday at Andorra la Vella.
Panathinaikos also nearly gave away its lead, but eventually managed to beat visiting Botev Plovdiv in Athens 2-1 on Thursday for the Europa League.
The Greens went ahead 2-0 by half-time with goals from Alexander Jeremejeff and Tasos Bakasetas, but Alen Korosec pulled one back for the Bulgarians who will have the chance to overturn their deficit at home next Thursday.
