paokarag4

Ingason is about to join Panathinaikos according to reports! 1 year after leaving us, to move to Denmark to be "closer to home" at least that's what I recall the media pedalling as the reason he left. He won the league title in Denmark with Midtjylland, and after one season is poised to join PAO on a 3-year 1.2 million Euro a season deal. I am completely blindsided by this move and it just makes me wonder what the real motivation was for his departure 12 months ago. Circumstances can obviously change, but it is a shock to see him returning to Greece. https://www.sport24.gr/football/panathinaikos-metagrafes-kleinei-ton-ingkason-gia-tria-chronia.10350899.html

Agree pash. It also provided players the opportunity to play some minutes who were returning from long term injuries. The ones I recall are Ingason and Michalidis.

After an awful season at Nottingham where he played just 5 Premier League matches and 7 in total across the season. Vlachodimos has joined another Premier League club in Newcastle United. Not sure if this move guarantees him more playing time, Nick Pope was the starter last season for Newcastle before a shoulder injury in December prematurely ended his season. I assume he will be fit again for the start of this upcoming season. Either way, hopefully he becomes a starter for Newcastle and has a good season.

Doncic played in a friendly overnight for Slovenia against Brazil and dropped 32 points. He is playing. We will get out of the group for sure, but Croatia and of course Slovenia will be no easy task.

10 million IMO is what he is worth, whether we get that or not is another issue. I too am worried that he is on his way out, hopefully we do hang on to him for the UCL qualifiers as blackhawk mentioned. Apparently we made a late play for Brignoli, which further worries me because it tells me the club is resigned to losing Kotarski and the player has made it clear he wants to be sold this summer.

Looks like the Tzimas loan to Nurnberg is happening. Just about guarantees we bring in another striker. https://www.paok24.com/podosfairo/500407/ektakto-sti-germania-o-tzimas/

Interview with Poyet below (In English with Greek subtitles) where he discusses him leaving the Ethniki, EPO and the loss to Georgia. Worth a watch, some interesting stuff in there especially some of the politics around EPO and how poorly organised/run the Ethniki still is to this day.

Agree, far from the worst place to be a loaned too especially with an all-time great striker as his manager! Worst case he comes back to us at 19 after having a played a year in Germany (even if it is the 2nd tier) with still plenty of scope for improvement and development. These are the types of leagues to loan too, not within Greece IMO.

Didn't he leave Lucescu's team last year? Unless I am mistaken I am sure he wasn't part of the coaching team this past season. And a quick google confirms it, seems like he worked at Udinese as an assistant this past season. I guess Lucescu's replacement was a good one!

I think it's a good move. He's a good coach, who has worked in Greek football and understands how it works and the culture, that is a big plus. He was unfairly sacked as PAO manager IMO and should probably still be at the helm. He is also being well received by fans (judging off social media) which is a good thing. As we know football in Greece is volatile, so having the fans on side, will help him settle into the role and get the ball rolling.

Surely Hartel is a pipe dream? With the season he just had (17 goals and 13 assists) in Germany's 2nd tier to help lead his team to promotion, he'll have Bundesliga teams banging down the door to sign him. Would be a great signing but hard to imagine him coming to Greece at 28 with those stats.

We are being liked with Mady Camara from Olympiacos who will be a free agent at the end of this month. He had a falling out with them, I believe he posted something on social media about wanting to leave or criticising Olympiacos in someway and did not play in the 2nd half of the season at all. At his best he is a very good box-to-box midfielder who runs all day and can score from midfield. He also adds something our midfield lacks, which is pace. Not sure what sort of Camara we would be getting given he hasn't played for 6 months but on paper it wouldn't be a bad move. Not sure if Olympiacos would intervene and make it hard for him to come but given it seems he and the club have had a falling out I can't see them being successful in any attempts to dissuade him.

As pash said, it doesn't help or alter anything for the coming seasons (24-25) European places, they are set. But their win means Greece moves to 15th place in the rankings and for the European season 25-26 we will have 5 teams in Europe. Top 2 will play Champions League qualifiers, 3rd and 4th Conference League qualifying and the cup winner will play in the Europa League qualifiers. Now this also happened in 2022 when we made the Conference League quarters, Greece ended up ranked 15th and with 2 teams in Champions League qualifying earlier this season (AEK and PAO) but we obviously slid back down the rankings and that's why next season there is only one team in the Champions League. Thankfully that's us. So hopefully Greek teams (not just us and Olympicos) can go on with this and have runs in Europe and continue to push the nation up the rankings and we can hold onto the 2 UCL spots as well as gain ground in the qualifying rounds and maybe even add an extra European ticket. Because when you look at the country coefficient, on paper there is really no reason we couldn't be ranked around 10th. Currently Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland and the Czech Republic leagues rank ahead of ours. With the big 4 teams in the shape they are currently in, there is no reason we can't push past these countries in the next few years and end up with much better European tickets than we currently have. https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/?year=2024

I can't believe it, this doesn't feel real.... Considering where we were a month ago I could not have dreamed that we would win 4 derbies in a row to win the league. Congrats to the team, all the players, Savvidis, and especially the greatest coach in our history RAZVAN LUCESCU! In terms of where it ranks, I maybe a prisoner of the moment but I think this one slightly trumps 18-19. Obviously that one was brilliant, drought breaking and undefeated was really special. But this seasons league had all 4 teams go deep into the title race. All 4 where in the race up to their eyeballs with just 3-4 games to play. Both are amazing but I still can't believe that we've managed to do it........ PAOKARA EXW TRELAAAAAA MES STO MUALOOOOOOOOOOO

Due to a satellite issue, Mysat (who has SportsPlus) unlocked their online streaming to not require a login. The issue has been resolved but they seem to still be streaming all their channels without requiring a login, at least that is the case here in Australia. https://www.mysatgo.com/play/60514/sport-plus So hopefully that stays that way until after the game and you can watch it on a reliable stream!

Game is over 12 hours away m@laka, you gonna be awake in a booze induced slumber?

H2H record between the 2 teams, which is level. But AEK has a better goal difference than us in our H2H games so they own the tie-breaker. AEK will win the title if we finish level on points.

H2H and goal difference in those H2H games. So we trail AEK because they beat us by 2 goals way back in October. One win each and 2 draws but AEK's 2 goal win means they hold the H2H. I believe they hold the H2H over all other title contenders too, so that's an advantage they have.

Definitely on the whole, the run in Europe has been a success. It is just bitterly disappointing to lose in the manner which we did. No fight or passion shown, no real chances created over 180 minutes of football. The fact that Brugge came with so many starters out and still completely controlled the game speaks volume for how much better they were. Taison (at times), was the only player on the pitch who looked like he could cut it at that level. Again, you can lose to a better team. It's the way we lost which stings the most.

Considering how we played, a 1-0 defeat is actually a good result and the tie is well and truly alive. These poor performances are becoming a bit of a habit, the only positive is we seem to bounce back well so hopefully we see an improved performance in Thessaloniki from the boys. Like after the 1st leg vs Dinamo, I don't think we will be that toothless in attack for a 2nd straight game, especially at home. Brugge completely controlled the tempo of the game, their goal was like a training drill, there was never any pressure on the ball during the whole passage of play. They forced us to play slow when we had the ball, and we were more than happy to oblige and play with no energy or movement. Only times we looked threatening was with Taison on a few occasions. Whenever they wanted to, it seemed they could create a chance. Again not dissimilar to the Dinamo 1st leg, Brugge are not a defensive juggernaut we simply made them look so. If we put pressure on their defense (which is now missing half of its starters through suspension) we are good for a goal at Toumba. The week off will do us good, it's been a long season.

Yeah I dare say it will be Taison at LW. Murg out also solves another potential dilemma for Lucescu, it means Konstantelias will start at the 10 and will probably rotate with Taison throughout the game. I expect Zivkovic to start over Despodov on the right. Otherwise it will be business as usual with the starting 11. I would expect Schwab to partner Meite and Otto to start over Vieirinha at right back. Not sure if he'll go with Thomas or Samatta up top. Probably Thomas I imagine but wouldn't be surprised either way. From what I can see, Brugge have plenty of young players who play in their attacking line so expect plenty of pace and energy. Their Brazilian striker Igor Thiago has scored 16 goals in the Belgian league so far and another 4 in Europe. He is moving to the Premier League in the summer to join Brentford for 30 million Euros. One to keep an eye on.

Tight game, AEK looked a little more dangerous when breaking forward. We had our moments too, got into some okay positions but we lacked the final ball. AEK noticeably sat back once they scored, affording us more space. Bad game for Taison to be sick, he would be handy right about now. I think we are good for a goal here, our performance has been improved compared to previous visits. Let's see how the 2nd half goes, I except to see Samatta sooner rather than later, to match it with AEK's physical CBs

Big fan of Tifo they produce some great stuff! I remember when the Savvidis one came out I thought it would take something like this for us to graduate to this level of social media? As you point out though pash, it doesn't harp too much on the incident and is rather an informative piece on Ivan and his background, as well as highlighting just a few of the issues with Greek football.

PAO isn't a threat IMO for the title. They shot themselves in the foot by sacking Jovanovic. AEK losing was the best result for us. We now go to the OPAP Arena where a point is good result, a win is an unbelievable result. The issue is, as Blackhawk points out is finding a way to beat AEK. We match-up poorly and their pressing causes us all sorts of problems, especially when we play away. Lucescu needs to come up with a way in which we can beat their press or give them the ball and press them back. Because us building up from the back is inviting pressure and AEK will feed off our errors.