PAOK – Dinamo Zagreb: The reactions following the historical qualification to the Conference League quarterfinals

Hundreds of his friends poured into the streets of Thessaloniki – and not only – to celebrate the historical qualification of Razvan Lucescu’s team in the UEFA Europa quarterfinals. The “whites”, although they had been defeated 2-0 in Zagreb’s “Maksimir”, were imposed 5-1 of Dinamo in Toumba taking the ticket to the next phase. In the locker rooms of the stadium of Toumba was also the father of Razvan Lucescu, Mircea, without making any statement, as “the evening belonged to the players and the coaching staff of PAOK”. Statements, however, were made by one of the protagonists of the great qualification, Konstantinos Koulierakis. The international central defender, participating in his team’s first, second and fourth goals, stressed: “With our image in the game, passion, energy, score as it came can understand what happened today and someone who has not seen the match. We have shown that we are a good team and there is no room for doubt, as has been heard recently, with the negative results we have had. I think we’ve been through the bad period that every team is going through. Not so bad racing, just the results were negative. But we have shown today that we are back here and we have certainly left nothing behind negative.” For his part, Brandon Thomas, a scorer of PAOK’s third goal at the end of the first half, pointed out: “It was something unique. After some difficult days and losing to Mars in the championship. We got this. It was something amazing. We’re very happy. We needed it and we believed it. We overturned the score of the first race and now it’s time to enjoy it.” To add: “We know who we are, our potential as a team and we don’t care what outsiders say. We believed in the twist. We have strong locker rooms, we’re tied up as a team, and together with our world we’ve been able to do the twist. We’ll enjoy it, rest and come back for the sequel. Personally, I dedicate everything I do to my grandfather. It’s all for him, to him I owe him that I am a footballer.” Creed, as is perfectly normal, prevailed in the rival “camp”. Dinamo Zagreb’s scorer, Arber Hoja, was the one who had temporarily brought the couple back to balance, reducing to 3-1 at the beginning of the second part. “We are disappointed about the blockade. We couldn’t get into PAOK at any point in the game. We scored a goal, but new mistakes in our defense brought us a devastating blockade,” he commented on the CosmoteSports subscription channel camera. The Croatian team’s coach, Sergei Jakirovic, is also disappointed. “PAOK played at a very high level from the start of the game. We did well from time to time, but we had a problem with static phases and ball possession. I don’t know if my players were influenced by the atmosphere, we should ask them,” Yakirovic initially said, to then award Dominique Kotarski credit. PAOK’s Croatian goalkeeper, born and raised by Dinamo academies, was the one who kept the “white-black” standing with two major interventions immediately after the score was reduced. “We needed to change many things in the half. At 48′ we scored goals, it was in a good spot. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunities, but the rival goalkeeper did an excellent job. Every loss is hard, every game feels bad, no wonder my players feel disappointed by the players. On the other hand, we must be proud that we have come this far.”