[Football- Grece 'Super League'] 3.1/ 19:00 PAOK- OFI Crete

[Fazio]

[Football- Grece 'Super League'] 3.1/ 19:00 PAOK- OFI Crete

PAOK have been a nice little money earner in the last 2 months so I’m giving them a chance for POTD glory and hoping that today isn’t the day they turn in a shit performance.

PAOK are sitting in first place of the Greek league with an 11-2-2 record which has come off the back of 6 straight wins. Their excellent run of form expands to 9 consecutive wins if you include domestic and European cup matches. But not only have they won 6 straight league matches, they’ve been doing it in style - their results (from oldest to newest) were 4-2, 2-1, 5-0, 3-0, 4-1 & 6-0, so they have been demolishing teams both home and away. Their 39 goals scored is 2nd most and only 11 conceded is equal best in the league.

They play at home against Crete who are 9th (of 14 teams) with a 3-6-6 record. Offensively they have been ordinary with only 13 goals scored in 15 matches (equal worst). To be fair they’re not the worst defensively with 22 conceded (6th best), but they’ve been struggling for form lately - they haven’t won a league match since early October, and have gone 0-3-5 in their last 8 matches (including 3 consecutive losses).

I expect that Crete will try to set up very defensively and see if they can sneak a point in a match they’re not expected to win, but Crete have been particularly poor away from home with an 0-3-4 record which certainty plays a role in this pick. This strategy has yielded some draws against weaker teams, but they were recently belted 4-0 by Panathanaikos who are up there competing with PAOK for the title so looking for something similar here.

I will point out that Crete actually won the first match up between these teams back in early September (1-0 with a 97th minute winner), but PAOK dominated all the stats and just had one of those days. The other factor is that both teams last played December 22 so you never know how teams are going to perform coming off the break, but PAOK are undoubtedly the better side, and hoping that their form prior to the break carries over. For a team that hasn’t won a title since 2019, this will be an important game to get the job done to maintain the lead over the chasing pack.

1 (handicap -1,5) @1,90 Bet365

FT 4:0