PAOK in Europe 2024-2025 (News, Draws, Rankings)

[pash]

I'll take the Red Imps, thanks

[Blackhawk]

We did have hard time against Red Imps in Gibraltar playing on artificial turf, until Taylor did his magic and unlocked the 0:0 stalemate few years back.

[pash]

Don't worry, I have faith we can handle them better this year.

Everybody set your alarm clocks for tomorrow's draw!

[Blackhawk]

That's way too early for me.

[Dutch Eagle]

Predraw is good:

Group 1

Seeded:
PAOK (GRE)
Ferencvárosi TC (HUN)
PFC Ludogorets 1945 (BUL) - FC Dinamo Batumi (GEO)
APOEL FC (CYP)

Unseeded:
The New Saints FC (WAL) - FK Dečić (MNE)
FC Dinamo Minsk (BLR) - FC Pyunik (ARM)
FC Ordabasy (KAZ) - FC Petrocub (MDA)
FK Borac Banja Luka (BIH) - KF Egnatia (ALB)

We avoided FCSB (fake Steaua) and Jagiellonia (some people or autocorrection call them by mistake legionella) who are in the same pre-group of unseeded.

For us no real wishes. Better to avoid the Kazakhs for travelling reasons (5 timezones to conquer).

[Dutch Eagle]

And it is the winner of:

FK Borac Banja Luka (BIH) - KF Egnatia (ALB).

First leg at Toumba.

[PaokCT]

Great draw. Should win this leg by 3-4 goals

[pash]

A very good friend of mine is from Banja Luka; I will be s%$#! talking him like my life depends on it between now and our game, should they progress.

[Blackhawk]

If we are serious we should not have any trouble qualifying to QR3. Hope we don't approach them like we did Levski Sofia. 

[Dutch Eagle]

Leg 1 of Q2 will be played on Wednesday July 24th at 20:30 EEST in Toumba.

[pash]

Hmmm I wonder which lineup he's looking to use for the actual game...

 

Η πρώτη απαρτίζονταν από τους: 

Ταλιχμανίδη, Ότο, Μπάμπα, Θυμιάνη, Μιχαηλίδη, Οζντόεφ, Τσιγγάρα, Κουαλιάτα, Γκούμα, Βιεϊρίνια, Σαμάτα.

Στην δεύτερη χρησιμοποίησε τους: 

Κοτάρσκι, Σάστρε, Ράφα Σοάρες, Εκόνγκ, Κουλιεράκη, Καμαρά, Σβαμπ, Ντεσπόντοφ, Τάισον, Μουργκ, Μπράντον. 

[PaokCT]

Watching Borac - Egnatia now. 0-0 25’ in. Ugly game, no real flow

[PaokCT]

Egnatia playing with 10 after a red card. They’ve accumulated 6 cards in 50 min. They’re clearly the better team but way more dirty. Would much rather face the Bosnians

[Blackhawk]

Banja Luka wins the game 1:0 with a goal 97th minute. Second red for Egnatia player in 102nd minute. Game finally ended in 116th minute.

[Blackhawk]

Today we learn who we will play next week. Banja Luka takes a 1:0 lead into Albania and has the upper hand in qualifying.

[pash]

Game is already spicy!

[pash]

Home fans chanting U-C-K, which gives me some Kace flashbacks

[Blackhawk]

The game is going into extra time as Egnatia won in regular time 2:1.

From 20 minutes that I have seen, we should not have hard time disposing of either of the two teams. The qualification should be easily decided in the first game at Toumba.

BTW if you want to see the extra time here is a youtube stream: 

 

[Blackhawk]

Banja Luka wins it on penalties.

[pash]

I included this list on my predicted lineup post in the game thread, but maybe this belongs here instead.

No Quagliata or Nasberg. Tsaousis is out too, but he probably was going to be sold or loaned anyway (and Lyratzis also is surely gone soon).

 

Λίστα Α

Μπάμπα, Τάισον, Καμαρά, Όττο, Ντεσπόντοφ, Εκόνγκ, Κεντζιόρα, Κωνσταντέλιας, Κοτάρσκι, Κουλιεράκης, Μιχαηλίδης, Μουργκ, Οζντόεφ, Σαμάτα, Σάστρε , Σβαμπ, Ράφα Σοάρες, Ταλιχμανίδης, Μπράντον, Θυμιάνης, Τσιφτσής, Τσιγγάρας, Βιεϊρίνια, Α.Ζίβκοβιτς .

Λίστα Β

Φίλων, Γκούμας, Κωττάς, Μοναστηρλής , Ρούμιαντσεβ, Σμυρλής, Τασιούρας.

[Blackhawk]

On Monday , the draw for Qualifying Round 3 is to take place. PAOK, if we make it past Banja Luka will again be seeded.

Here are the seedings:

SEEDED

PAOK Thessaloniki - Borac Banja Luka

FC Steaua Bukurest - Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Ferencvaros Budapest - The New Saints

Qarabag - Lincoln Red Imps

Slovan Bratislava - Celje

UNSEEDED Ludogorets Razagad - Dinamo Minsk FC Midtjylland - UE Santa Coloma Sparta Prague - Shamrock Rovers Malmo FF - KI Klaksvik APOEL Nicosia - Petrocub Hincesti Jagiellonia Bialystok - Panevezys We will play one of the winners from the unseeded matchups.

[PaokCT]

Want to avoid Sparta 

[pash]

Agreed. We can beat them, but they're the scariest of this team. Would be happy to avoid the Bulgarians too

[Dutch Eagle]

And just to be complete (not to be confused with fatalistic): we will be featuring in the Europa League Q3 draw for Champions too as losers of Q2 continue there.

We will be in the unseeded part as UEFA has the logical assumption the unseeded team loses and steps down one European level. 

Our opponent would be the loser of the ties:

FCSB - Maccabi 

KÍ - Malmö

Shamrock Rovers - Sparta Praha 

Lincoln Red Imps - Qarabag 

The New Saints - Ferencvaros 

RFS Riga - Bodo/Glimt 

[pash]

So basically:

Loss vs Borac - Europa League third qualifying round

Loss in 3rd Round - Europa League Play Off

Loss in CL Play Off - Europa League's League Stage

 

Wikipedia's making my head spin, but it seems more clearly spelled out on Kassiesa.net. Only question is, if you wash out of the EL third qualifying round (as someone who starts in the Champions League), do you get bounced down to Conference League play off round? And same for if you lose in the Europa League Play Off round, do you go right to League Stage of Conference League? In other words, can you theoretically drop down two leagues?

Seems kind of cheap if so - it would basically mean a guarantee of Europe if you lose your first and third ties, right?