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Whenever they faced the Greeks in Thessaloniki, the Lisbon team won. But individually, Abel has an advantage over Jesus
Benfica won every time they faced PAOK in Thessaloniki, a team that reappears on the path of the “reds” in the access to the group stage of the Champions League, this time in the third qualifying round.
In three trips to this Greek city, the club da Luz always secured the victory and the last one was even a 4-1 win in 2018 in the “Champions” play-off. In 2014, in the round of 32 of the Europa League, they won 1-0, and in 1999, in the second round of the UEFA Cup, they won 2-1.
Even so, in a one-game elimination, due to the covid-19 pandemic, Benfica’s task does not promise to be easy, since PAOK is the Greek runner-up and, in 2018/19, they won only for the third time in their history the Hellenic championship.
The history of confrontations is clearly favorable to the “incarnates”, but the scenario changes slightly in the duels that happened in the past between coaches Jorge Jesús, back at Benfica, and Abel Ferreira, who begins his second season in the emblem of Thessaloniki.
When he was ahead of Sporting de Braga, Abel beat Jesús twice, when he led Sporting, with a draw and a win for the 66-year-old.
To reach this stage, in a game in which they did not have Vieirinha, European champion with Portugal in 2016, PAOK took the Turks out of Besiktas, with a 3-1 home win. At just 18 years old, forward Christos Tzolis was an important figure in the game, having scored two goals.
PAOK-Benfica will be played on September 15 or 16.
In the case of advancing, the “red” formation will face the Russians from Krasnodar, “executioners” of FC Porto in the play-off “in the third qualifying round of the 2019/20 edition, on days 22 or 23 and September 29 or 30.
Benfica are looking for the eleventh consecutive appearance in the group stage of the “Champions”, in which FC Porto has already played, as champions of Portugal.
The draw held in Nyon, Switzerland, also dictated the Dynamo Kiev-AZ Alkmaar and Gent-Rapid Vienna duels, on the “Way of the Leagues.”
The matches “Ferencváros-Dinamo Zagreb, Qarabag-Molde, Omonia-Estrela Vermelha, Midtjylland-Young Boys and Maccabi Tel-Aviv-Dinamo Brest” will be played in the “Path of Champions”.
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