The game started with a two-hour delay and was finally played in the city’s indoor stadium, Boginn, due to heavy snowfall.

PAOK took the lead in the seventh minute with a nice effort from Toursounidis and maintained control throughout the first 45 minutes, without being threatened by the home side. At the beginning of the second half, in the 52nd minute, again via Toursounidis, PAOK extended their lead to 2-0. Tsiotas initially entered the penalty area from the right and shot goalwards, and after his effort rebounded, the ball fell to Toursounidis, who made no mistake for his second goal of the game.

The visitors were clearly the superior side throughout, creating opportunities that they failed to exploit to increase the winning margin even further. That mattered little, however, as PAOK held firm to claim the victory. The only black spot on the game was the sending off of Bataoulas due to a second yellow card in the 89th minute, which means he will miss the return leg.

PAOK will host Akureyri on November 5. The winner of the tie will face the winner of the tie between Legia Warsaw – Fiorentina in Round 3. In the first leg of that tie, Legia won 4-1.

PAOK’s lineup: Beleris, Tsiotas, Polykratis, Bataoulas, Kosidis, Sznaucner, Aretis, Gioka, Mythou (78′ Gravvanis), Toursounidis (90′ Avrampos), Balde (83′ Papadopoulos).