DunfermlineAthleticPAOK

58: Olympiacos (1972–74) with defeats to PAOK in October 1972 and April 1974

My first game was V Olympiakos in 2018. Scotland had beaten England the night before in the 6 nations which we watched in a nice wee rugby pub (I'm not joking) called Rehab in Thessaloniki. I celebrated far too hard that night and we didn't get to bed until about 7am on the Sunday! As we were running late and and still a bit drunk, we got a taxi to the ground and my first sight was a procession of people (the only orderly queue and peaceful scene that day) scaling the wall of the church, praying, then jumping back out lighting flares and cracking open the Malamatina while running into the pandemonium that was taking place 100 meters away. I knew then I was witnessing something special, something that only a few cultures and fixtures round the world can produce. This was about 6 hours before KO. Fast forward to being inside and I went with my then 'wife to be' and stood in Gate 4. The 2 or 3 hours before KO in G4 was ridiculous.. it felt like a religious experience but at the same time as if we were about to go to war. So much so that i was genuinely taken by surprise when the players emerged from the tunnel as i had forgotten we were there for football. Well, as you know the rest is history and we stood in the rain for what must have been at least an hour (maybe two hours?) after KO before everyone decided enough was enough and there was no way the game was going ahead. A group near by were on phones and arranging people to go to the airport to presumably stop the Olympiakos team from leaving and also trying to find out which hospital Garcia had been taken to. Next thing i know is we're leaving and i was absolutely devastated..i Remember heading down towards Gate 1 to get a better look of the commotion before getting close enough to realise that it was about to explode at any moment. I managed to put my sensible head on and thought it was best to get her out of there and so started walking away when the flares et were being thrown. Without a word of a lie, Maria turns to me and say's "come on, if your not going to get a Greek game, you will get to see a Greek riot" I had to pinch myself as i turned round to see here tying her t-shirt around her face! she told me to do the same before skipping off into the smoke towards the bother. I decided that covering my face was not necessary as it was dark, and didn't imagine the CCTV was like what we have in the UK (if there was any at all). As we passed a man smashing up the pavement handing out rocks ( think 2001 a space odyssey monolith monkey scene ?) i thought "what the hell is going on here? this is mental!". Then the shouting seemed to stop and these things started whistling over head and hitting the ground with a clink. i thought it was strange PAOK fans were throwing stuff at our own until Everyone started shouting "Πάμε! Πάμε!" then metal canisters started to explode and it was apparent that they were stun grenades and tear gas being launched by the police. Haha boy did it immediately regret not covering my face as it started burning and i couldn't breath or see Anyway, to conclude, we managed to escape in one piece although we were barricaded in a bar on the main road for a an hour or so where the police tried (unsuccessfully) to force there way in to batter anyone they could. They even had tear gas at the door in some sort or weird attempt to smoke people out. Luckily we had enough people to keep the door from being forced open and they ended up being occupied by the main trouble up the street. which drew their attention away. One of the most incredible things i saw that night was 3 or 4 really old woman hunched over out sweeping their patch of street to get rid of the gas canisters, rocks an broken bottles... and all this time the police and fans were exchanging turns in charging and throwing stuff at one another over their heads. bins the streets were on fire all around and yet these woman were so cool about the chaos unfolding and not phased by anything. Eventually we walked back into the center and fell through the door of our friends apartment around 2am.. i was absolute burst by this point and slept like a baby. I was so angry with the game being abandoned and it was one of the most disappointing things to happen but wow what a buzz and a surreal experience that i will never forget. We made up for it the following year though What a Baptism! I saw the best and the worst of Greek league football that night but i was hooked and couldn't wait to book flights to come back.

Cracking Video Blackhawk! In 1968, my team in Scotland, Dunfermline Athletic played Olympiakos. We won 4-0 at home and Lost 3-0 in Greece. Some of the players that played in the away leg said that Olympiakos were the dirtiest team they faced in there career. Incidentally, we went on to beat West Bromich Albion in the QF and in the SF we Lost 2-1 on aggregate to Slovan Bratislava. We played them off the park and our players were convinced the referee had been paid off in the away leg. Slovan went on to beat Barcelona 4-0 in the final. To think we would probably have lifted a European trophy if it wasn't for a dodgy ref. I don't think my Dad has ever got over that result haha. Anyway, Sorry for straying.. it just reminded me of the 4-0 over olympiakos in the same year and then Slovan Bratislava.

From what I gather, the commentator was making derogatory remarks about PAOK fans and mentioned something along the lines of 'Greek people are so poor they cant even afford clothes' in reference to us (the fans) having our tops off? Can anyone confirm if that's correct as it was loosely translated from a dutch article yesterday while we were hungover so it might be nonsense. The official complaint to UEFA about Craig Pawson is 100% the correct thing to do. If this was the other way round then it would be a much bigger issue.

Nice one. I'm going to get that printed on a t-shirt for when we inevitably play them in next years qualifiers.

Anyone that watched that game and didn't think the ref was completely incompetent at best and cheating at worst is either blind or trolling. I don't think we got one 50/50 all night yet he couldn't give free kicks and the penalties quick enough to Ajax. The handball that wasn't given at the end just rubber stamped it. For years he been criticised for his performances by supporters, managers and even ex referees. It's criminal he still gets a gig. He should not be allowed to referee at this level and in matches of this importance... it's as simple as that. I was left saying that only one team are allowed to win this game and two days later, now that i have calmed down a bit, I still feel this way. The players reaction at some of the decisions and at the end tell you everything. Sadly, we passed up to many good chances over the two legs which didn't help but thought we got our tactics spot on and the players should be proud of their efforts. Special mention to Diego and Paschalakis... both were phenomenal throughout. Paschalakis is erratic and too eccentric sometimes but he has developed into an absolute colossus. Don't understand how he is not first choice for Greece.

Good luck to anyone trying to get a ticket.

We are brutal at defending set pieces but in attack we have just played a blinder there with that move.

This is phenomenal from PAOK!!!

Yaaaaaassssssssss

Much better since conceding. Have faith.

Esiti looks the business! And would (going on videos I have seen) be very useful in the big games where we will need a ball winner in midfield.

Nearly five and half thousand sold in one day is pretty impressive.

This is a bit worrying, no?. I thought they would have sold out easily in record time after the season we have had.

Good signing. Experience at the highest level and still a good few years left in the tank.

I was at Toumba yesterday to collect my season ticket and there was a lot of people going in to either collect or buy and there were about 8 people working on the desks with the phones ringing non stop. It was great being back and managed to have a chat with various people with in the club offices and the shop which was great. Interestingly there was a gentleman working in the club shop (who I was talking to about how I became PAOK being from Scotland) and he only had one big tattoo and it was of William Wallace and “Freedom” written across his back haha.

Ah fair enough and thanks for the explanations! Punt him to an English team and get some decent coin ?

I have just renewed ? 22,000 is surely a given after the season we have had? It would be great to have near sell outs every game this season and have higher attendances than Olympiakos.

I'll admit i only get to see other Greek teams when they play PAOK or they are in Europe so can anyone explain why we would sell Koulouris? He has had a great season and broken into the national set up as a regular starter. Is he just deemed not good enough by management or just too far down in the pecking order? I would like him to get a chance this season coming as he is clearly capable and will have something to prove at PAOK which will hopefully make him dangerous.

Has there been any leaks of next seasons strip?

Yes, and No. I would love nothing more than to beat Celtic but the other half wants to avoid this fixture at all costs. Celtic and Rangers are two horrible clubs and the equivalent of P.O.K. in Scotland so the less contact we have with them the better IMO. They would without doubt try and copy a lot of our songs and in the off chance they actually beat us.....? **shudder**. They have inflicted enough pain on me over the years. Aacht, what am i saying...Bring it on!!! I'll fill up my apartment with a load of PAOK fans for a few nights and have a party!

I would liked Shakhov to stay as has been cited previously he contributes a good amount of goals and has a bit of physical presence. Lazar Markovic on the other hand can take a run and jump. Hope we don't sign him and hope we aren't even interested.

Looking forward to hearing PAOK's official view on this. I can understand a split, so the top half play each other and bottom half play each other for a final round robin set of games to bring up the fixture count and add a bit more excitement but to have playoffs for the championship and the European positions is a shockingly bad idea.

He said that his three kids started crying about him leaving PAOK and this is what made up his mind. His children will be hero’s at school tomorrow!!

Just been reliably informed that Varela has walked into Toumba, asked for a new contract and signed until 2022!