PAOK’s kids are growing up | Blog – Vassilis Samprakos

Vassilis Samprakos writes about the contribution of Kotarski, Kollirakis, Tsingaras, Constantlias in the qualifiers against Hajduk.

PAOK kicked out of the Conference League the team that created more and better chances in both matches between them. Hajduk has created more chances in Tumba (15) than PAOK (8), and more quality chances (xGoals: 2.26 for Hajduk – 2.18 for PAOK). And that more or less happened in the first game as well (14 finals with 1.16 xGoals for Hajduk – 8 finals with 0.38 xGoals for PAOK). Someone who did not watch the matches and studied the performance analysis data, by Wyscout and match highlights would have assumed that the better team did not qualify. But since this is football and not the performance of two production lines, the answer to the question of whether the team is the best qualified lies in the difference between the two teams in the psychological and spiritual aspect. These are the elements that gave PAOK qualification. That’s why Razvan Lucescu says his team began questioning him more this year than they did last year.

At a very crucial stage, very early in the season, PAOK had many footballers who made a huge contribution. Kutarsi, who regrouped after the blunder in the eighth minute and kept PAOK upright with his tackles. Kolerakis who “scored” with Levaya’s execution save in the eighth minute, Konstantlias with the penalty kick he won after previously recovering the ball up the pitch, and with the pressure he applied with Brandon and Zivković to get the ball. ball and make it 2-0. Tsingaras with adherence to the tactical part in the defense phase, 64% efficiency in duels and with 3 possession recovers the opponent half. Schwab who beat his demons and hit a penalty kick, Śivković with his “2 on 2” and winning mentality which he imparted to his teammates and opponents both in the first game and in the second leg. In other words, PAOK succeeded because it had more footballers who performed under pressure at a high level than Hajduk.

Either way, the character shown by his team will be reason for Lucescu to feel confident of achieving that goal. But if I understand correctly, the reason he is so impatient to live and watch PAOK’s next games is because he realizes that his “babies” are now starting to “grow”. They show character under pressure, footballers who couldn’t make it this past year in the play-offs and cup finals. That is, he sees Kotarsi, Kolerakis and Constantlias taking charge in the game when the ball is on fire, and he understands that these footballers are starting to feel comfortable and work calmly under pressure.

In fact, this is the big bonus that PAOK will collect if they finish what they started to build with games with Beitar and manage to eliminate the Cup and find themselves in the group stage of the Conference League. Yes, for prestige, history, global psychology and achieving financial goals, qualification is critical. But without this finding that youth “blossoms,” Lucescu would not be able to feel as optimistic as he appears. Because with the roster he has, even if players are added, he doesn’t feel he has the material to compete with the other big players in Greece if he doesn’t think the “youngers” can perform well under pressure.

Show him the “little ones” that they are “growing”. And if they continue to do so, they will certainly affect the dynamics of PAOK. With two more additions and playing “small” like “big”, PAOK can do better things than Lucescu promised – and wasn’t – in July.