25th August 2023. Hearts 1 PAOK FC 2

European football again tonight. After an early meal I left home around 18.50 to walk down the road to Tynecastle. I arrived around 19.10 and scanned my electronic ticket for entry. I was heading towards the snack bar at the Roseburn end when I met Jim. He was going to catch up with Graham and I joined him. You can guess what our topic of conversation was - football ! Alex joined us later and we chatted for about fifteen minutes before heading to our respective stand seats. There was a father and child separated by my seat and another. I agreed to move to one of their seats so they could sit together. The child was Aiden Denholm’s cousin so I felt quite virtuous in helping out a Hearts player. 

Hearts made four changes from the side that defeated Partick Thistle in the Viaplay Cup on Sunday. Stephen Kingsley, Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Liam Boyce replaced Odel Offiah, Toby Sibbick, Calem Nieuwenhof and Alex Lowry. With Peter Haring missing through injury it like Alex Cochrane was going to be playing in centre midfield which I don’t think is his best position. I was also a bit concerned about Barrie McKay starting as I did not think he was back to full match fitness yet. I would have started Yutaro Oda and had McKay on the bench as an impact substitute. PAOK FC or "Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans" are based in Thessaloniki Macedonia. PAOK are one of the top domestic clubs, the most widely supported in Northern Greece and have the third largest fanbase in the country, according to the latest polls and researches Amazingly they have a Hearts connection with former Hearts central defender Christos Karapidis being their Technical Director.

Hearts started well with Kenneth Vargas looking dangerous down the right. His first run showed his potential and after his second in five minutes he won a penalty. He was brought down by PAOK captain Stefan Schwab near the byeline and after a lengthly VAR review following the referees decision to award a goal-kick Hearts were awarded a penalty. Lawrence Shankland took the kick and while PAOK keeper Dominik Kotarski guessed the right way to dive, the penalty beat his dive and landed in the bottom corner of the net. PAOK however scored an equaliser almost immediately when Andrija Živković was brought down by Kye Rowles in the penalty area and  Schwab sent Zander Clark the wrong way to restore equalise. There had been another Hearts foul, outside the penalty area, in the build up to penalty but the referee let that one go and played on. Kotarski managed to keep the scores level around  half hour mark after. Kingsley crossed for Shankland who connected well a header. the keeper made an excellent save then reacted quickly to block Boyce' attempt with the rebound.  Both sides were lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation and largely cancelled each other out for the remainder of the first half. 

The second half continued in much the same manner as the first as PAOK were content to try and retain possession and blunt Hearts attacking attempts  The match was not helped by the Greek attempts to both waste time and roll over like dying swans whenever they were challenged by a Hearts player. PAOK had another penalty claim ten minutes into the second half but the referee walked play on. The ball fell to Brazilian Tiason and Clark did well to block his attempt at the near post. Hearts thought they had retaken the lead in sixty-seven minutes when Boyce had an attempt on the edge of the box blocked but fed the rebound through to Shankland who curled the ball into the far corner of the net. Tynecastle erupted but another VAR check ruleD Shankland offside and the goal was disallowed. Fifteen minutes from time Hearts were caught three on two at a corner. The ball was worked out to Zivkovic who hit an excellent twenty-five yard drive past Clark and into the far corner of the net. Hearts tried to press for an equaliser but PAOK were time wasters 'par excellence' although it took the referee until injury time before he booked two players for wasting time. Given the goalkeeper had been wasting time since the start of the game by delaying goal kicks I was surprised no action had been taken earlier.

The final whistle blew with Hearts needing a two goal win in Greece next week to qualify or a one goal win and a win in a penalty shoot-out. I do not think PAOK are a great side but Hearts will find the second leg very difficult. I walked home a bit despondent but cautiously optimistic about the second leg. I just wish I could afford to go!

Teams

Hearts: Clark, Kent, Kingsley, Shankland, Boyce, Atkinson, Devlin, Rowles, McKay, Cochran, Vargas.

Subs: Subs: Oda, Sibbick, Offiah, Tagawa, Lowry. 

 

PAOK: Kotarski, Koulierakis, Tsingaras, Konstantelias, Taison, A.Živković, Ekong, Kędziora, Schwab, Soares, Brandon

Subs: Murg, Narey, Tzimas