PAOK and Ajax Bring The Thrills

With their Champions League third qualifying round encounter tied at 1-1 after the first leg, the teams did the business in Thessaloniki last night and provided the most exciting game of the round (sorry, Celtic).

Cue the fireworks!

Vieirinha struck first for PAOK before Ajax got their act together, notching three in seven minutes early in the second half through Luis Suarez (who catches a slow-mo earful from Martin Jol at the end of the video), Siem de Jong, and Rasmus Lindgren’s wacky-bounce free-kick.

Then came that poor Eredivisie defense (sorry, Joep). Dimitris Salpigidis slots home inside the six-yard box traffic before a dive wins the home side a penalty. Karma strikes right back—a rubbish strike pinged directly into Stekelenburg’s legs—and though PAOK would score again via Vladimir Ivic in stoppage time, de Godenzonen held on for the victory on away goals.

Thanks to the seeding that I so royally screwed up in yesterday’s preview, Ajax will earn a seed and face any one of Dynamo Kyiv, Braga, Young Boys Bern (who knocked off Fenerbahce in Turkey, an impressive feat), Auxerre, or Sampdoria.

Meanwhile, commenter Mario was half-right in our Greece preview: though PAOK fell a hair short of the upset, they certainly appear to be in the catbird seat for the Greek title race.