Krasnodar vs PAOK Match Preview

PAOK travels to Russia for the first leg against Krasnodar in the UEFA Champions League playoffs, aiming for a positive result ahead of the rematch in Thessaloniki.

Last season, Krasnodar's European dreams ended in the Champions League playoffs, but this season, the Russian team targets higher, to a spot in the group stage. Krasnodar, in which the former center for of Panathinaikos Athens, Marcus Berg, leads in their offensive line, has been improved a lot this season and hopes to overcome the obstacle of a Greek team. Let me remind you that last summer Krasnodar did a big victory against Porto on the road for the Qualifiers of the competition, but Olympiacos totally crushed them in the Playoffs by 4-0 in Faliro, while in the 2nd leg they were defeated again by 2-1.

After 8 rounds played in the Russian league, Krasnodar has been devent and in their previous round, they prevailed by 7-2 against the weak Khimki making their best performance from the start of the seaaon. They have the best attack in the Russian league so far.

On the other hand, PAOK won against two of the best teams on their domestic leagues to reach the Playoffs, Besiktas and Benfica, but in the Greek league they struggled a lot in the first two rounds they've played so far. After a narrow victory against AEL with 1-0, they shared points with Atromitos on a 1-1 draw in Toumpa.

A strange statistic for PAOK is that, so far, they've played all of their first 4 official matches in their home, so this will be their first away match for the new season.

Krasnodar at the moment seems to perform better than PAOK and the home side to win is decent choice since the offered odds are quite good.