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Arsenal in Europe 1997-98

The UEFA Cup

First Round full draw PAOK Thessaloniki 1st leg (away) Pre-match News 0-1 loss Match report aggregate
1-2 loss
2nd leg (home) Pre-match News 1-1 draw Match report

Other useful pages

First round

First round opponents: PAOK Thessaloniki

Our opponents are variously called PAOK Thessaloniki, Thessalonika, or Salonika by the English press. Local name is Thessaloniki so that's what ArseWeb will go with. Calling the city "Salonika", according to a Gooner who lives there, isn't far wrong.

I've found some PAOK sites....

PAOK fans soccer page
The most up-to-date, and in English.
PAOK home page
This one's got English and Greek, and is based in Reading. Some of the pages are missing, but there's plenty of pictures.
PAOK Football Club
Yes it's another one. Seems rather out-of-date (squad line-up for 1996-97, fixture list for 1995-96...). It has a picture of their "infamous ex-president" but I've not idea who he is or what he's infamous for! (Blizzard writes: "Their 'infamous ex-president' is nothing more than a scapegoat for the fact that they haven't acheived almost anything over the past years.Blame it all on the president,why not?It works here in Greece alright.")
US Mirror site
As above except I can't get it to load.
PAOK Fan page
Not much of it, and all in Greek.
AFCi page on Salonika
Complete with "Dad's Army" style map!
Apparently PAOK play in black & white (like Juve), their ground is called "the tomb", and their fans call the supporters' section "Black Hell". Their supporters are notorious for their overzealous behaviour. The team was recently banned from Europe because of fan disturbance: I guess the deeply disturbed fans of Tottenham have avoided this fate only through not qualifying. Last time PAOK were in Europe they were beaten 5-0 on aggregate by PSG. But last season they had an good run of form which saw them rise to 3rd place in the league. PAOK have several current and former Greek internationals and may not be so easy to beat as many Gooners are assuming.

Thessaloniki is the Cultural capital of Europe this year and is recommended for a longer stay than just the match (although from what we've heard about PAOK fans perhaps you'd better make it a pre-match trip rather than hanging round after we've beaten them). Here's a handy travel page.

PAOK players to look out for

  • Kostas Frantzeskos ("Costas Frangeskos" on CarlingNet) has a reputation as their most effective weapon. He's a free-kick specialist who scored 13 free-kicks last year. If he doesn't perform, it is said, PAOK don't perform. According to CarlingNet Frantzeskos is doubtful for tonight.
  • Nikos Mihoupolos is their goalie, particularly good at coming out to collect crosses and corners.
  • nikos Kolobourdas is their defensive brain, and good going forward too. He has never been booked.
  • Thodoros Zagorakis is their captain and plays in midfield.
  • Up front there's Zisis Vryzas who Howard Kendall is said to have wanted to take to Everton. He's fast and good one-on-one running at his man, but is said to not cope so well with heavy marking.
PAOK's arch rivals in Thessaloniki are Aris FC. This Aris site's "hate page" includes animated gifs such as the strike-out PAOK crest, and someone walking up to and pissing on a crest (but that one's Olympiakos, I believe). There are other Aris sites here, here, here (in the UK, in English), here (in Greek), and here! Most feature special "hate page"s devpted to PAOK. We've received several messages of support from Aris fans, including promises that they'll come to the airport to meet Gooners and teach tme ant- PAOK songs. So watch out that you don't find yourselves in the middle of a civil war out there! The Aris fans term of abuse for PAOK is "Turks". Shades of the Y-word there, we can only hope that the connotations are less dodgy.

Many thanks to Blizzard (Arsenal and ARIS supporter), Thrasos (Aris), Pasxalis (ARIS web page guy), Mike (Greek-American Gunner), and the Arsenal mailing-list for information included above.

First Round News - first leg

16/09/97 Match-day team news
Tony Adams will play tonight after being rested at the weekend. Arsène Wenger says he's not 100% fit yet, but is ready for the full 90 minutes. He will presumably take the place of Gilles Grimandi, who is suspended for 3 European matches (carried over from his time at Monaco). Nicolas Anelka could make his first start in place of Bergkamp, although Platt could get his place in a more defensive starting line-up. Marc Overmars has a groin problem and his fitness will be checked before the match. So we could see both Anelka and Platt, or perhaps Boa Morte in place of Overmars (these three: NA, DP, LBM, came on as subs on Saturday presumably to give them a run-out before tonight). One player who is no longer available to Wenger is Paul Shaw, who yesterday signed for Millwall.
Latest from Thessaloniki is that it'll be rainy windy and chilly. See this weather site.
11/09/97
The Mirror today claims that will definitely not play for Arsenal in the first (away) leg against PAOK. His fear of flying meant that he would have faced 6 days of travel, plus the match of course, between our Premiership clashes with Bolton and Chelsea. He might even have had to leave Highbury before the end of the Bolton match on Saturday in order to catch the Eurostar in time. If he does miss the match it'll be the first time that his phobia had prevented him from appearing for Arsenal. He has missed some Holland matches before.
The good news is that came through a reserve match and may be back in the first team on Saturday. So there's a very good chance he'll be ready for Tuesday.
08/09/97
The first (away) leg will be shown live on Channel 5 next Tuesday, the programme is listed as running from 6.30pm to 8.50pm.

First Round News - second leg

TV Coverage & Kick-off time
The match will be shown live on Channel 5. Kick-off is at 8.00pm
Team news
Lee Dixon has come through Monday's trainign session and declared himself fit for tomight. Gilles Grimandi is still suspended.

Full first round draw

First leg September 16, second leg September 30
First named team plays home leg first 
     (Group A)
Deportivo La Coruna (Spain) v   Auxerre  (France) [s]
Salzburg (Austria)          v   Anderlecht (Belgium) [s]
PAOK Thessaloniki (Greece)  v   Arsenal (England)
Widzew Lodz (Poland)        v   Udinese (Italy)

     (Group B)
Ajax (Netherlands) [s]      v   Maribor Teatanic (Slovenia)
Lyon (France)               v   Brondby (Denmark) [s]
MPKC Mozyr (Belarus)        v   Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)
Real Valladolid (Spain)     v   Skonto (Latvia)

     (Group C)
Vitoria (Portugal)          v   Lazio (Italy) [s]
Strasbourg (France)         v   Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) [s]
MTK Budapest (Hungary)      v   Alania Vladikavkas (Russia)
Schalke 04 (Germany)        v   Hajduk Split (Croatia)

     (Group D)
Bastia (France)             v   Benfica (Portugal) [s]
Sion (Switzerland)          v   Spartak Moscow (Russia) [s]
Ferencvaros (Hungary)       v   OFI Crete (Greece)
Sampdoria (Italy)           v   Athletic Bilbao (Spain)

     (Group E)
Bordeaux (France) [s]       v    (England)
Steaua Bucharest (Rom.) [s] v   Fenerbahce (Turkey)
Rotor Volgograd (Russia)    v   Orebro SK (Sweden)
Jazz (Finland)              v   1860 Munich (Germany)

     (Group F)
Trabzonspor (Turkey) [s]    v   Bochum (Germany)
Croatia Zagreb (Cro.) [s]   v   Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland) [s]
Vitesse Arnhem (N'lands)    v   SC Braga (Portugal)
Rapid Vienna (Austria)      v   Hapoel Petach-Tikva (Israel)

     (Group G)
Internazionale (Italy) [s]  v   Neuchatel Xamax (Switzerland)
Glasgow Celtic (Scotland)   v    (England) [s]
Excelsior Mouscron (Belg.)  v   Metz (France)
Twente Enschede (N'lands)   v   Lillestrom (Norway)

     (Group H)
Beitar Jerusalem (Israel)   v   Club Brugge (Belgium) [s]
Atletico Madrid (Spain) [s] v    (England)
AGF Aarhus (Denmark)        v   Nantes (France)
Karlsruhe (Germany)         v   Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)

copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV

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