Outnumbered from the 55th minute, after Darius Olaru was sent off, FCSB managed to hold on and finally get three huge points in Europe.
PAOK Thessaloniki, dusted in the press in Greece
”PAOK: Desperation in front of their own supporters“, the Greeks from Gazzetta.gr captioned.
The columnist Dimitris Tsorbatzoglou criticized in harsh terms the performance of PAOK Thessaloniki, which he wrote was going through a period of crisis. PAOK evolved for more than 40 minutes in numerical superiority, but Răzvan Lucescu’s students failed to score in Ștefan Târnovanu’s goal, even if the opportunities were not few.
The Greeks were not able to motivate themselves and restore equality even in the ten minutes of extra time shown by the German Stegemann, minutes in which PAOK rushed to the goal of the red-blues. The Greek columnist believes that Lucescu’s team would not have scored “even if the match lasted two more hours”.
”A shocking night for PAOK, the players were tussled with the goal and looked extremely disappointing. I have no words. What to describe? What should be remembered after this evening? They are stuck! They have a huge psychological problem, they can’t seem to score anymore. Against Aris and Steaua, PAOK had 45 chances and yet… zero.
A big zero for Lucescu’s players, who apparently have reached a point where they see the goal much smaller than it actually is. This reality overwhelmed them and somehow, at the end of the two matches, the despair could be read on their faces. Unfortunately, at some point they stopped believing, not even when the German referee showed ten minutes of overtime.
It is clear that Lucescu’s team would not have scored even if they had played for two more hours. PAOK can’t score easily, Lucescu already knew that, but he didn’t solve the problem this year either. There was no player with a goalscoring personality, they didn’t have that instinct. It’s two setbacks one after the other, and PAOK is going through a crisis period.
They were on target 27 times, played 108 minutes, had 13 corners and yet the whole stadium and, unfortunately, PAOK’s players too, at a certain point, knew they couldn’t. In the first half, they had 14 completions. In other words, how many chances do you need to score a game-changing goal? Between them there were three or four big chances and a bar. (…) A real shock for the Greek champion“, wrote the Greek journalist Dimitris Tsorbatzoglou.
Răzvan Lucescu did not escape the criticism of the Greeks
Moreover, the Gazzetta.gr columnist also criticized Răzvan Lucescu, whom he accused of always trying to find excuses for the team’s poor performances and that, with his attitude, he brings a negative atmosphere in the dressing room.
”Unfortunately, Lucescu has a lot to deal with after he also convinced himself that summer is not coming back. If you constantly complain that players are late, you will bring negativity to a team that has learned to rely on a good atmosphere and trust. And because teams always have the coach’s character on the field, this season negativity seems to dominate even with 45 shots in two games“, the Greek also wrote.
Related News :