PAOK and Basel Set to Entertain
The 2018/19 Champions League is already well under way and this week sees the beginning of the second qualifying round.
There are several matches to look forward to on Tuesday night but arguably the pick of the games is PAOK Salonika vs Basel. This is a meeting between the teams which finished second in the Greek Super League and Swiss Super League respectively.
PAOK finished second to AEK Athens last season in the Greek league and will be looking to build on that by qualifying for the Champions League group stages. The 2018/19 Greek Super League does not begin until late August, so PAOK have been relying on friendly games to get them up to speed for this match.
Having drawn with Anderlecht and lost to Nordsjaelland, PAOK’s form has improved recently with wins over FC Steaua Bucuresti, Antwerp and De Graafschap plus a draw against Gent.
PAOK have been exciting to watch in preseason, scoring in each of their six friendly games and netting 2 or more goals in four of them. However, they have also conceded in all six matches and have a poor record in the Champions league, failing to win any of their previous ten games.
Basel were left stunned in the Swiss Super League last season as they finished second to Young Boys. Basel had dominated the Swiss league for the past eight seasons but were left 15 points behind the champions, which came as a shock to the system.
That means Basel must qualify for the Champions leaguegroup stage this season from the second qualifying round. Much like their opponents, they have been playing friendly games ahead of the match.
Having won three and drawn one of their first four preseason games, Basel’s form has taken a turn for the worse. The Swiss club have lost each of their last four friendly matches to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aarau, Feyenoord and St Gallen, with the 5-0 defeat to Feyenoord being the poorest result.
These results leave Basel in an uncertain frame of mind ahead of this important match.
Team news and PAOK will be without the injured Dorian Leveque in defence but he is the only player likely to be unavailable for the hosts. New signings Leo Jaba and Evgen Khacheridi could be involved and last seasons top scorer, Aleksandar Prijovic should start.
Basel have several players struggling to make the game and Eder Balanta, Taulant Xhaka, Samuele Campo and Zravko Kumanovic could all miss out. New signings Silvan Widmer, Dimitri Oberlin and Aldo Kalulu are available.
With both teams scoring and conceding plenty of goals in preseason, we could be in for an entertaining match. The value of scoring an away goal will not be lost on Basel and PAOK have a very poor record in the Champions League.
However, it’s PAOK who look in better form heading into this game and we could see a home win, with both teams scoring.
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