Article by Romeo Ene – Published on Sunday, 18 January 2026 22:25 / Updated on Sunday, 18 January 2026 22:25
PAOK Thessaloniki, the team coached by Răzvan Lucescu (56 years old), defeated OFI Creta, score 3-0, in the 17th stage of the Greek championship. Following this result, the Romanian team climbed, at least temporarily, to first place in the Greek championship.
Olympiakos, in 3rd place, has a game less played. In case of success, it will return to the first position in the Greek championship.
PAOK beats OFI Crete and climbs to first place in Greece! Răzvan Lucescu's reaction
The equation of the game was settled from the first half. PAOK opened the scoring in the 18th minute, through Dimitrios Pelkas.
2-0 was made in the 40th minute, through Taison, and Georgios Giakoumakis set the final score 3 minutes later.
PAOK preferred to keep the result in the second half and are currently leading with 41 points after 17 matches. It is followed by Olympiakos, with 39, and AEK, with 38. Răzvan Marin's team has a match against Panathinaikos tonight.
Răzvan Lucescu declared himself satisfied with the performance of the players and the result, immediately after the end of the game.
“We had a big game. We had a lot of absences. We started aggressively. In the second half we controlled the game and did not allow OFI to cause us problems. At the same time, we also had to manage some players.
Chatsidis is a player who, every time he plays, gives us things, as happened in the match against Olympiacos. Today was something different for him. He had to create opportunities to score and he played excellently,” said Lucescu, according to metrosport.gr.
For PAOK Thessaloniki, the duel at home with Betis follows on January 22, in the main group of the Europa League.
Ranking of the Greek championship
