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If he is serious about returning to Europe, he'll budge on the salary. There is zero chance he doesn't realize how overpaid he was in Mexico. Five million will be chump change if he leads us to a title (and possible direct qualification to the league stage of the CL). Don't worry my friend, it'll all work itself out. I have foreseen it.

VS MATCHUP: Olympique Lyon – PAOK Thessaloniki FC COMPETITION: Europa – League Phase – Matchday 8 DATE: 29-January-2026 TIME: 22:00 EEST (19:00 UTC, 14:00 CDT, 06:00 AEDT next day) CITY/STADIUM: Lyon – Groupama Stadium (59,186) REFEREES: TELEVISION: COSMOTE Sport (Greece), Cytavision Sports (Cyprus), Stan Sports (Australia), Paramount+, ViX (USA) PAOK’s History against teams from France in European Competitions --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2025-2026: LOSC Lille – PAOK FC 3:4 – (18. Meite, 23. Zivkovic, 42. Konstantelias, 74. Zivkovic) - Att: 23,666 – Europa League – League Phase – MD3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2021-2022: PAOK FC – Olympique Mareille 0:1 - Att: 27,648 – Europa Conference League – Quarterfinal – Leg 2 2021-2022: Olympique Mareille – PAOK FC 2:1 – (48. El Kaddouri) - Att: 8,783 – Europa Conference League – Quarterfinal – Leg 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2014-2015: PAOK FC – EA Guingamp 1:2 – (22. Athanasiadis) - Att: 12,101 – Europa League (Group Stage – Round 6) 2014-2015: EA Guingamp – PAOK FC 2:0 – Att: 8,783 – Europa League (Group Stage – Round 2) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2005-2006: PAOK FC – Stade Rennais FC 5:1 – (3. Own goal, 37. Christodoulopoulos, 79. Giasemis, 82. Salpiggidis, 89. Giasemis) – Att: 1,012 – UEFA Cup (Group Stage – Round 4) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1992-1993: PAOK FC – Paris Saint-Germain 0:3ff – Att: 26,500 – UEFA Cup (Round 1 – Leg 2) Paris St. Germain wonthe game 3:0 on forfeit after the game at Toumba was abandoned in the 45th minute when PAOK fans stormed the field. The score at that time was 2:0 for PSG. As a result, UEFA banned PAOK for 2 years from any European competition that the team would qualify for. 1992-1993: Paris Saint-Germain – PAOK FC 2:0 – Att: 17,000 – UEFA Cup (Round 1 – Leg 1) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1982-1983: FC Sochaux Montbeliard – PAOK FC 2:1 aet – (95. C. Dimopoulos) – Att: 17,000 – UEFA Cup (Round 1 – Leg 2) 1982-1983: PAOK FC – FC Sochaux Montbeliard 1:0 – (78. C. Dimopoulos) - Att: 30,000 – UEFA Cup (Round 1 – Leg 1) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1973-1974: PAOK FC – Olympique Lyon 4:0 – (25. Paridis, 61. Paridis, 37. Alsanidis (p), 80. Sarafis) - Att: 30,416 – Cup Winners Cup (Round 2 – Leg 2) 1973-1974: Olympique Lyon– PAOK FC 3:3 – (44. Aslanidis, 50. Terzanidis, 81. Sarafis) – Att: 26,500 – Cup Winners Cup (Round 2 – Leg 1) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GAMES: 12 WINS: 4 TIES: 1 LOSSES: 7

Also with a tie at Lyon we will at least end up in the 9 - 16 position, which would mean that in the playoff game we will play the second leg at Toumba.

Current table: 1. Olympique Lyon 7 6 0 1 14 : 3 18 2. Aston Villa 7 6 0 1 11 : 4 18 3. SC Freiburg 7 5 2 0 10 : 3 17 4. FC Midtjylland 7 5 1 1 16 : 8 16 5. SC Bragga 7 5 1 1 11 : 5 16 6. AS Roma 7 5 0 2 12 : 5 15 7. Ferencvaros Budapest 7 4 3 0 12 : 7 15 8. Real Betis 7 4 2 1 11 : 6 14 9. FC Porto 7 4 2 1 10 : 6 14 10. KRC Genk 7 4 1 2 9 : 6 13 11. Crvena Zvezda Beograd 7 4 1 2 6 : 5 13 12. PAOK Thessaloniki 7 3 3 1 15 : 10 12 13. VfB Stuttgart 7 4 0 3 12 : 7 12 14. Celta Vigo 7 4 0 3 14 : 10 12 15. AC Bologna 7 3 3 1 11 : 7 12 16. Nottingham Forest 7 3 2 2 11 : 7 11 17. Viktoria Plzen 7 2 5 0 7 : 3 11 18. Fenerbahce Istanbul 7 3 2 2 9 : 6 11 19. Panathinaikos Athens 7 3 2 2 10 : 8 11 20. GNK Dinamo Zagreb 7 3 1 3 12 : 14 10 21. LOSC Lille 7 3 0 4 11 : 9 9 22. SK Brann 7 2 3 2 9 : 10 9 23. Young Boys Berne 7 3 0 4 8 : 13 9 24. Celtic Glasgow 7 2 2 3 9 : 13 8 25. PFC Ludogorets Razgrad 7 2 1 4 11 : 15 7 26. Feyenoord Roterdam 7 2 0 5 10 : 13 6 27. FC Basel 1893 7 2 0 5 9 : 12 6 28. Red Bull Salzburg 7 2 0 5 8 : 12 6 29. FCSB 7 2 0 5 8 : 15 6 30. Go Ahead Eagles 7 2 0 5 6 : 14 6 31. SK Sturm Graz 7 1 1 5 4 : 11 4 32. Glasgow Rangers 7 1 1 5 4 : 11 4 33. OGC Nice 7 1 0 6 7 : 14 3 34. Utrecht FC 7 0 1 6 3 : 11 1 35. Malmo FF 7 0 1 6 3 : 13 1 36. Maccabi Tel Aviv 7 0 1 6 2 : 19 1 If only one of our three ties against weaker teams was a win we would now be certain to finish in the top 8.

The buyout option is 5 mil. Hopefully we can reach a deal with Cruz Azul at around 3 to 3.5 mil. The other stumbling block will be his salary. Right now he is making around 3 mil (we are paying around 1.8 mil and the Mexicans the rest). I don't see us paying him that much if we sign him outright.

1,496 minutes played, so works out to just under 17 games. Scores every 125 minutes. Someone (our Austrian former podcaster?) mentioned when we first got him that we'd see a high workrate kind of player. Well...that's spot-on. Good call there. He's also pretty entertaining to watch; plays with a similar type of aggression to my boy Pelkas (which I think is a huge positive). I think the sites were saying we had a "reasonable" buy out amount, but I don't think I actually saw any numbers? Either way - BUY THE BOY I forgot when I wrote my previous post that Kedziora has an automatic extension if he plays in 70% of games, which I am sure will happen (barring any shock injuries).

Must buy Giakoumakis. He has impressive stats in Europe: 4 goals in 7 matches (and not a single one the whole 90+stoppage time). Overall 12 goals in 25 matches (did not check the minutes he played but I don't think he has played whole games). He has gelled in perfect and seems to found his freedom (thanks Fats Domino!) in Thessaloniki with his family. And he is only 31. A baby according to Razvan.

Also, adding this because it is quite interesting. Tough road ahead either way.

Right now footballmeetsdata is giving us a 1% chance of the top 8 (which sounds about right). A shame Panathinaikos couldn't beat Ferencvaros (but predictable). From what I can see, the only way we can get in the top 8 is if all of these results come true: Betis loses vs Feyenoord (Feyenoord needs a win to have any chance of progressing) Porto loses or draws vs Rangers (this is a meaningless game for Rangers) Genk loses or draws vs Malmo (this is a meaningless game for Malmo) Red Star loses or draws vs Celta We win All of the teams level on points with us (Stuttgart, Celta, Bologna) don't win their games by more than we win ours Any one of those, I could see happening. Maybe even a few of them. All of em? Nah. Statistically possible but basically done. We're playing for pride and a few more euros prize money.

We have 12 points and a +5 GD. Matchday 8 (Thursday 29 January 2026) includes next important matches for our final ranking: Basel vs VIKTORIA PLZEŇ Midtjylland vs DINAMO CRVENA ZVEZDA vs CELTA fscb vs FENERBAHÇE LILLE vs Freiburg Lyon vs PAOK REAL BETIS vs Feyenoord Sturm Graz vs BRANN STUTTGART vs YOUNG BOYS PANATHINAIKOS vs ROMA PORTO vs Rangers FOREST vs FERENCVÁROS Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs BOLOGNA GENK vs Malmö In capital letters our opponents from #6 (15 points at the moment) till #23 (9 points at the moment).

Two wins and a tie see us move ahead of Poland and close the gap on the Czech republic. # country 21/22 22/23 23/24 24/25 25/26 ranking teams 1 England 21.000 23.000 17.375 29.464 16.847 107.686 9/ 9 2 Italy 15.714 22.357 21.000 21.875 13.071 94.017 7/ 7 3 Spain 18.428 16.571 16.062 23.892 13.312 88.265 8/ 8 4 Germany 16.214 17.125 19.357 18.421 14.035 85.152 7/ 7 5 France 18.416 12.583 16.250 17.928 12.071 77.248 7/ 7 6 Netherlands 19.200 13.500 10.000 15.250 8.479 66.429 6/ 6 7 Portugal 12.916 12.500 11.000 16.250 13.050 65.716 4/ 5 8 Belgium 6.600 14.200 14.400 15.650 7.300 58.150 3/ 5 9 Turkey 6.700 11.800 12.000 10.300 7.575 48.375 3/ 5 10 Czech Republic 6.700 6.750 13.500 10.550 8.825 46.325 4/ 5 11 Greece 8.000 2.125 11.400 12.687 10.650 44.862 4/ 5 12 Poland 4.625 7.750 6.875 11.750 13.625 44.625 3/ 4 13 Denmark 7.800 5.900 8.500 7.656 10.500 40.356 2/ 4 14 Norway 7.625 5.750 8.000 11.812 6.000 39.187 2/ 5 15 Cyprus 4.125 5.100 3.750 10.562 11.406 34.943 3/ 4 16 Switzerland 7.750 8.500 5.200 7.050 6.000 34.500 3/ 5

We are a peculiar club as we did win our both matches against pot 1 clubs but did not win both matches against pot 4 clubs: https://kassiesa.net/uefa/league/2026/elstats.html

With only FC Utrecht and Racing Genk still playing in MD 7 we are assured of at least #23. Last year we finished 22nd. Can we improve? Would mean more money and more coeff.points.

The keeper is a scumbag like Bakasetas and Vida. I remember him well as he once stepped on purpose on the arm of Messi. An anoying kathiki.

Stupid yellows at the end. The keeper is going to get a yellow regardless; why lose your mind like this? This might have been the first time I've seen Taison actually gassed. Hopefully this isn't a sudden decline! I was really hoping to hear the reaction of the commentator as he did his old man with a bastouni walk. Some very relevant games currently ongoing for the top-8. We actually still have a chance, assuming a win in the last match day. Sickens me to say this, but Panathinaikos could actually do us a favor later today. Stay tuned I guess.

Major win against a very good opponent.

FT. Another great night.

+5.

Camara and Mythou subbed in for Ozdoyev and Giakoumakis. These are our last subs.

Giakoumakis 2-0.

And they are starting a fight. Keeper pushing a ball in the face of Baba. Michailidis and Zivkovic get a yellow.

Taison waisting a chance and immediately subbed out for Despodov. Corner follewed and a penalty for us.

Poor strike Giakoumakis there. We must score that 2-0. As the law is: if you refuse to score the opponent will.

Meite should have been more carefull with that "assist" or should have scored himself.

Meite has ZERO idea what to do with the ball at his feet, it's hilarious