Europa League Play-Off Round - Fenerbahçe vs. PAOK: Half Time Report
Fenerbahce suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Switzerland's Young Boys and were knocked out of the Champions League. Young Boys were defeated last night by Tottenham Hotspur and were also knocked out of the Champions League. This defeat of the Swiss team was set to act as a motivating factor to the Turkish giants Fenerbahce as they were preparing themselves to go into tonight's game looking to come out with a win. Fenerbahce had some interesting events occur before going into the game. Firstly, Robinho refused to join the Turkish team. At the same time, Milos Krasic revealed that he had the opportunity to join the Turkish side but chose not to. Fenerbahce are also looking to sign Mahamadou Diarra and were looking to have an exceptional performance tonight to try and change the minds of the players who turned down the option to play for the team and to show to other players just what the team is capable of doing. Fenerbahce will have a lot on their hands, since they were going into this game on the heels of a defeat in the domestic league, and just didn't look as sharp as one would have expected the team to be.
PAOK were also scheduled to participate in the UEFA Champions League. However, they were defeated at the hands of AFC Ajax. Unlike Fenerbahce, they were knocked out on the away goals rule. The match, however, showed just how good PAOK could be. They displayed some fantastic game-play and seemed to be much stronger in their home stadium then most teams would have thought.
Experts believe that everyone who was going to be watching this match should have prepared themselves for a shock. PAOK were in terrific form as compared to their Turkish rivals and were a sure shot to win the match and qualify for the group stages over Fenerbahce (especially given their 1-0 win in the first leg of the play-off round over Fenerbahce at the Toumba stadium). However, considering this was a game of football, anything could have happened.
Both the teams took to the ground as the referee blew the whistle to begin the proceedings on the night, while simultaneously signalling to the crowd that it was time to go crazy.
Contradicting the experts’ opinions, Fenerbahce looked to be the stronger side early on. The team was constructing some beautiful passes and looked to be the more threatening side early on in the match.
The match was, however, evenly contested with Fenerbahce doing most of the attacking and PAOK doing most of the defending. Near the end of the first half, neither one of the two teams looked to be creating any clear-cut chances to go one ahead of the other.
The fans were, however, still trying to urge their teams on in hopes that their voices might do the trick and pump the players up to perform better than they were at the moment.
However, neither one of the teams seemed to respond to the fans’ demands as they seemed to play rather boring football. The match went into the half time break at a 0-0 stalemate.
Both the managers seem to have a lot of strategizing to do in the locker-room and have talks with their teams during the interval.
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