PAOK will welcome Dinamo Zagreb to Greece on Thursday for the second leg of their Europa Conference League round-of-16 tie.
The hosts will bid to overturn a 2-0 deficit after falling short in the first leg in Croatia with a quarter-final spot up for grabs.
Match preview
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PAOK head into their Europa Conference League round-of-16 second-leg tie on Thursday aiming to overturn a deficit and continue their continental campaign after cruising through the group stage of Europe's tertiary competition.
The Greek outfit began their run in July and had to fight through three qualifying rounds to reach the group stage, seeing off Beitar Jerusalem, Hajduk Split and Hearts before joining Aberdeen, Eintracht Frankfurt and HJK Helsinki in their group.
The White-Blacks advanced through with a near-perfect record, topping the group with 16 points from their six matches, having picked up a win and a draw against Aberdeen and completed doubles over the German and Finnish sides with their tally of 16 goals only topped by one team across the competition.
That saw Razvan Lucescu's side skip the playoff round and play their first continental football of 2024 in the round of 16 against Dinamo Zagreb, and their trip to the Croatian capital ended in a disappointing defeat in last week's first leg, with goals in either half firing their opponents into a 2-0 lead at the halfway point of the tie.
Now returning to Conference League action on the back of a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Aris Limassol in the Greek Super League playoff on Sunday to drop off top spot in their domestic top flight, PAOK will be desperate to overturn their two-goal deficit and prevail on home turf on Thursday to advance to the final eight.
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Their visitors, meanwhile, travel to Thessaloniki aiming to protect their hard-fought lead, having gone through an extra stage to reach the final 16 of this year's Europa Conference League.
The Blues' continental campaign began in Champions League qualifying, and after dropping out at the hands of AEK Athens, they were denied a place in the Europa League by an aggregate loss to Sparta Prague.
That saw them settle for a Europa Conference League group spot, and despite losing three of their first four matches, Sergej Jakirovic's team were able to salvage second spot with a pair of wins before prevailing in impressive fashion over Spanish outfit Real Betis in the playoff round, winning 1-0 away from home thanks to Bruno Petkovic's goal and drawing 1-1 in Croatia courtesy of Takuro Kaneko's leveller.
Such an aggregate triumph set up their round-of-16 tie with PAOK, and Jakirovic's side gained the edge on home turf last week, beating the White-Blacks 2-0 as Petkovic opened the scoring in the 37th minute and added a crucial second 19 minutes from time.
Now following a 5-2 beating of Slaven Belupo in the Croatian top flight on Sunday, with Tibor Halilovic, Gabriel Vidovic and Sandro Kulenovic on the scoresheet alongside a late Martin Baturina brace, Dinamo Zagreb will travel with the aim of staying ahead in the two-legged tie and booking their quarter-final place.
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Team News
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PAOK continue to deal with several injury issues heading into Thursday's second leg, with key defender William Troost-Ekong remaining confined to the treatment room alongside Giannis Michailidis, Mbwana Samatta, Joan Sastre and Zivko Zivkovic.
Brandon should again lead the line in their 4-2-3-1 shape, while Andrija Zivkovic is a star man on the right wing having netted a team-high tally of 15 goals alongside eight assists across all competitions so far this term.
While he joined Taison and Giannis Konstantelias in a supporting trio behind the lone striker in their trip to Dinamo Zagreb last time out, Razvan Lucescu could also call on fellow danger man Kiril Despodov from the outset given their need for the goals, having hit the net 12 times so far this term - as many as Konstantelias.
Sergej Jakirovic has little reason to change his Dinamo Zagreb starting XI from their 2-0 win in last Thursday's first leg against PAOK, with Marko Bulat and Marko Rog remaining sidelined by injuries.
In a similar shape to their hosts, Bruno Petkovic will continue to lead the line, having moved level at the top of the competition's scoring charts this term with his sixth and seventh Conference League goals of the season in their triumph last week.
Behind him and the supporting trio of Dario Spikic, Martin Baturina and either Arber Hoxha or Gabriel Vidovic, Petar Sucic and Josip Misic will continue to partner up at the base of the midfield, while Kevin Theophile-Catherine and Maxime Bernauer will hope to see out another clean sheet against PAOK to guarantee their side's progression.
PAOK possible starting lineup:
Kotarski; Castro, Kedziora, Koulierakis, Rahman; Meite; Zivkovic, Konstantelias, Taison, Despodov; Brandon
Dinamo Zagreb possible starting lineup:
Nevistic; Ristovski, Theophile-Catherine, Bernauer, Perkovic; Sucic, Misic; Spikic, Baturina, Vidovic; Petkovic
We say: PAOK 2-1 Dinamo Zagreb (Dinamo Zagreb win 3-2 on aggregate)
PAOK certainly have the quality to run their visitors close and challenge the two-goal deficit on Thursday, but Dinamo Zagreb showed themselves to be resilient against difficult opposition when they got past Real Betis, and we fancy them to make their lead count and scrape through to the quarter-finals.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Sam Varley
