Shamrock Rovers 1 - 3 PAOK FC

Shamrock Rovers were taught a harsh lesson about the standard of European football that they aspire to at Tallaght Stadium on Thursday night as PAOK Salonika ran out convincing 3-1 winners despite a spirited second half fight back from the home side.

Conceding early goals in Europe has become something of a tradition for Shamrock Rovers and it was one that was maintained against the Greeks, Dimitris Salpigidis making the breakthrough after just seven minutes.

Rovers had started brightly, passing the ball well and looking reasonably composed on the ball, and Chris Turner was the first to have a shot in anger, testing the PAOK ‘keeper Chalkias with less than two minutes on the clock. A strong run down the right by Pat Sullivan and good hold up play from Karl Sheppard presented an opportunity for the midfielder to shoot from 25 yards out, but Chalkias did well to get behind the ball.

PAOK gave warning of their own intentions on six minutes when Georgiadis broke through the middle. He went down on the edge of the Rovers box amid a cluster of defenders only for the referee to wave play on. But the ball broke to Vieirinha whose firm shot flew past Thompson and clattered back off the butt of the left hand post, falling then for Salpigidis whose follow up effort was heroically cleared by Craig Sives, with some suggestion that he may have used his arm.

One minute later Vieirinha found himself on the right and slipped a ball through for Salpigidis who nudged it around Thompson with just enough pace to evade the despairing effort of Sives to clear and roll into the right hand corner of the Rovers net.

The remainder of the half was largely an exercise in containment for the home side as the Greeks passed the ball with control and confidence. Lazar and Arias elegantly controlled central midfield while Vieirinha and Georgiadis skipped down the flanks, a constant torment to the Rovers defence.

On 26 minutes Vieirinha played a magnificent ball over the top for full back Lino to run onto, Ryan Thompson charging from his goal to save superbly as he shot from just inside the box. But Rovers were being cruelly stretched and ten minutes from the break the Greeks deservedly got a second.

A mistake by Conor McCormack gave the ball to Georgiadis who played a simple ball inside to salpigidis. He in turn rolled it on to Fotakis who took a touch before drilling home from 15 yards. And a third came three minutes later as the visitor’s superiority began to register on the scoreboard.

It came from Georgiadis wide on the right who floated a pin-point cross to the back post where Salpigidis was waiting unattended. One deft touch later and the ball was, once again, nestling in the Rovers net.

To their credit Rovers pressed well for the last minutes of the half, Chris Turner flicking a header from Stephen O’Donnell’s ball over Chalkias and under the Greek bar. But the ‘keeper recovered his balance and managed to turn the ball over with an outstretched hand.

Michael O’Neill sent on Gary Twigg and Ciaran Kilduff at the start of the second half as Rovers switched to 4-4-2, and six minutes in Rovers had pegged one back. Giorgos Fotakis was yellow carded for a foul on Sheppard right on the edge of the Greek box and Billy Dennehy stepped up to curl the ball around the wall and in off the far post.

Suddenly the game was a more urgent affair and moments later Sullivan followed Fotakis into the referee’s notebook for a wild challenge on Lazar. Then Bruno Cirillo took a turn, taking out Ciaran Kilduff wide on the left as the sub broke down the line. Dennehy’s free found an unmarked Sheppard eight yards out but the striker could only direct his header well wide of the PAOK goal.

And Rovers continued to redeem themselves as the game evolved, playing a more combative and concentrated brand of football than that displayed during the opening period. Sheppard worked another free shortly after the hour mark, wrapping himself around a perplexed Lino, allowing Dennehy to send in another dead ball that was delivered to the back post and headed frantically back across the Greek goal-line by a PAOK defender.

This new and improved Rovers, now almost unrecognisable from the version that appeared in the first half, were clearly causing PAOK problems but they still had enough about them for Vieirinha to smash a 30 yard shot off the Rovers bar and for the same man to blast wastefully over after some imaginative inter-play with Salpigidis.

Georgiadis too might have restored PAOK’s three goal margin when he drilled a low shot across the Rovers goalmouth, only to see it skid inches wide of Thompson’s right hand post. 

But Rovers were not to be subdued and KiIduff and Sheppard were causing all manner of problems at the other end. Seven minutes from time Kilduff got his head to a high ball and as it fell to Dennehy ten yards out to the left he wound himself up for a volley that might was powerful and cleanly hit, but sadly off target.

In added time Pat Sullivan worked his way around full back Lino and chipped a cross towards the Kilduff at the back post. Despite being clearly held back the striker arced his head onto the dropping ball and poked it past Chalkias, only for centre back Malezas to whip it off the goal-line.

It was a courageous second half from the Hoops and another goal would not have flattered them, but PAOK too might have made more of the hatful of opportunities that came their way.

Shamrock Rovers: Ryan Thompson; Pat Sullivan, Craig Sives, Dan Murray, Enda Stevens; Gary McCabe (Gary Twigg, 46), Chris Turner (Ciaran Kilduff, 46), Conor McCormack (Stephen Rice, 70), Stephen O’Donnell, Billy Dennehy; Karl Sheppard.

Subs not used: Richard Brush, Jim Paterson, Ronan Finn, Rohan Ricketts.

Bookings: Sullivan (53).

Sendings Off: None.

PAOK: Costas Chalkias; Miroslaw Sznaucner, Bruno Cirillo, Stelios Malezas, Lino; Giorgos Georgiadis (Alexis Apostolopoulos, 88), Costin Lazar, Giorgos Fotakis (Sotiris Balafas, 64), Diego Arias, Vieirinha; Dimitrios Salpigidis (Sakis Papazoglou, 90).

Subs not used: Bertrand Robert, Dario Kresic, Kostas Stafylidis, Stelios Kitsiou.

Bookings: Fotakis (51), Cirillo (55), Lino (62).

Sendings Off: None.

Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus).

Attendance: 7,000 (estimate).

extratime.ie Man of the Match: Karl Sheppard.