Olympiakos wins first leg over 10-man PAOK

By George Georgakopoulos

An eventful semifinal clash between Olympiakos and PAOK on Wednesday saw the Reds win the first leg in Piraeus with a 2-1 score, although they could have stretched their advantage further given they played for almost an hour with a man’s advantage.

Olympiakos scored twice in the first 10 minutes, through Chori Dominguez and David Fuster, but PAOK grabbed a precious away goal out of the blue with Stefanos Athanasiadis after 31 minutes.

PAOK’s goal was followed by ugly scenes involving several players that resulted in a red card for Miroslav Stoch of PAOK, a yellow card to Fuster and a five-minute stoppage to the game.

The rest of the encounter was a cat-and-mouse situation as Olympiakos tried to capitalize on PAOK being left with 10 players, but could not find away through the visitors’ defense, while keeper Panayiotis Glykos produced an impressive performance with some crucial saves for the Thessaloniki club.

After the game PAOK issued an ironic statement against the referee.

The second leg will take place at Toumba Stadium of Thessaloniki on April 16, the same day as the other semifinal between Panathinaikos and OFI Crete.