Road losses for PAOK and Olympiakos in Europa League

PAOK and Olympakos started off with defeats at the Europa League this week, with the Greek champion going down at Galatasaray and the Conference League holders losing at Lyon.

On Wednesday PAOK suffered a 3-1 reverse in Istanbul in what always going to be a tough opener for the Thessaloniki team - though a peaceful enough one too.

Galatasaray opened the score through an Abdul Baba Raman own goal just after the start of the second half. PAOK's sole Greek player in the starting lineup, Giannis Konstantellias, equalized on the 67th, but "Cim Bom" scored twice in the last 15 minutes through Yunus Akgun and Mauro Icardi to collect all three points at the start of the league phase.

Then on Thursday Olympiakos lost 2-0 to hosts Olympique Lyonnais in France, despite matching the French in the first hour of the game.

Lyon went ahead on the 65th with Ryan Cherki,...