Bulgarian star Kiril Despodov was a starter for PAOK (Thessaloniki), which closed its obligations for 2024 in the best way, winning 3:0 against Atromitos at "Toumba" stadium in the 16th round of the Greek Super League, BTA reported.
Despodov remained on the field until the 86th minute, when he was replaced by Georgian striker Shola Soreitire. Otherwise, the Bulgarian was at the heart of the first goal, which unlocked the goal of Atromitos in the second minute of added time of the first half.
The guests were left with a man less in the 22nd minute due to a direct red card for Nikolaos Athanasio, who kicked the Austrian captain of the hosts, Stefan Schwab, in the face with his heel. And the first goal came at the very end of the half, when Yannis Constantelias broke through from the left and returned the ball to the penalty spot. Despodov met it from the move with a very technical shot and sent it into the post. From there, however, it returned to Fyodor Chalov and the Russian made no mistake on an empty net. Shortly before that, Despodov broke through from the right and crossed very well, the ball falling into empty space, but there was no one to simply direct it into the net.
Andrija Živković scored for 2:0 with a little luck in the 4th minute of the second half, and in the 59th minute it was the turn of goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski to prove his class, saving a penalty from Atromitos captain Amr Varda. The penalty kick was again caused by Yannis Mihaylidis - who had made two mistakes in previous matches.
PAOK's dominance continued and in the 74th minute Despodov had a good opportunity to increase the lead, after shooting diagonally, but the ball narrowly missed Houtesiotis' goal. The final 3:0 was made by Madi Kamara in the 93rd minute after a pass from substitute Vieriña.
With this success, PAOK collects 33 points and is temporarily in 2nd place in the standings, 1 behind Olympiacos. Atromitos has already played four games without a win and is in 7th place with 19 points. Later today, AEK (Athens) hosts Levadiakos, which is in the lower half of the standings.