PAOK put Hoops to the sword

Shamrock Rovers 1 PAOK 3

If this was seen as Shamrock Rovers’ best hope of gaining their first result in Europa League Group A, nobody informed a very impressive PAOK.

Laszlo Boloni’s Greek side played with tremendous skill and pace to punish an at times jaded looking Rovers, ending the game as a contest by half-time as they went top of the pool.

A bright Rovers start, in which Chris Turner forced the first save of the game from Kostas Chalkias with a long range shot, counted for nothing as they were a goal down by seven minutes.

Portuguese winger Vieirinha shot against a post with Dimitris Salpingidis having the follow-up brilliantly blocked by Craig Sives. But seconds later, Vieirinha was played free on the right to square the ball for Salpingidis to touch past Ryan Thompson.

PAOK enjoyed all the possession and were carving Rovers open at will with Thompson having to make a terrific save from Brazilian full-back Lino who was played in one-on-one by Vieirinha.

Inevitably, a second goal arrived on 35 minutes when a mistake by Conor McCormack was clinically punished. Salpingidis fed Giorgos Georgiadis on the right to cross for Giorgos Fotakis to finish.

Three minutes later it was game over as Rovers conceded another bad goal, this time Georgiadis getting free on the right again to centre to give Salpingidis his second of the game from a far post tap in.

Hoops boss Michael O’Neill brought on Gary Twigg and Ciaran Kilduff at half-time, switching to a 4-4-2. And Rovers gave their fans some cheer when getting goal back on 51 minutes with Billy Dennehy’s low free-kick going in off a post.

While that gave Rovers faint hope, PAOK remained very dangerous on the counterattack, wasting a host of chances while Vieirinha’s 25 yard drive had to be touched onto the bar by Thompson.

Rovers battled until the end, though, and Kilduff had a diving header cleared off the line by Stelios Malezas in stoppage time.

But the game was long since over as Rovers now head to eastern Russia to face Rubin Kazan on November 30 still searching of their first point.