SPORTS

AEK loses badly, but PAOK wins

PAOK retained its hopes of advancing to the next round of the Europa League after beating Shamrock Rovers 2-1 at home on Thursday, while AEK suffered its third loss in as many games for the same competition, losing 3-1 at Lokomotiv Moscow.

Facing the part-timers of Shamrock Rovers, the champions of Ireland, PAOK led from the first half thanks to a spectacular Costin Lazar goal.

The Irish equalized early in the second half through Karl Sheppard, but PAOK took all three points courtesy of a powerful shot from outside the area by Adelino Vieirinha at the 63rd minute.

The Thessaloniki side now has five points from three games, second only to Tottenham (with seven) and ahead of Rubin Kazan (with four) and Shamrock Rovers(with no points).

AEK played a good first half but could not translate its performance into goals. Therefore when its defense betrayed it twice in the second half, conceding two goals to Dmitry Sychev (the second from the penalty spot), a recovery was unlikely.

Teenage striker Steve Beleck missed a couple of big chances for AEK before Dimitris Sialmas pulled one back for AEK two minutes form time, but instead of equalizing the Athens side conceded a third goal to Felipe Caicedo in injury time.

As a result AEK has very little chances of advancing to the next round with the more games left to play.

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