FCSB maintain their lead of one goal ahead going into the second knockout playoff leg of Europa League as they defeated PAOK in their earlier match last week at Thessaloniki.
Andrei Gheorghita scored along with Joyskim Dawa in the second half to completely shift the match's outcome during the Greek stadium clash as FCSB led the standings before the second part of the series.
Military rank and organization do not reveal any substantial difference between FCSB under Elias Charalambous and PAOK under Razvan Lucescu for this Romanian–Greek heavyweight encounter.
Ally Samatta opened scoring for PAOK but the Salonika side controlled the match until the crucial flashpoint of Taison's red card which happened just before halftime.
FCSB shocked PAOK by winning the match 2-1 thus becoming the predicted team to move forward into the Round of 16.
The first-round favorites PAOK Salonika faced competition as FCSB finished 11th in league standings but the Greek side maintains confidence to achieve what their Romanian opponents achieved during the previous fixture.
The Romanian team FCSB presents an uphill challenge because they have won three consecutive matches and remained undefeated five times as well as securing their weekend victory over Gloria Buzau 2-0.
Since the winter break Manchester United has been the only club to defeat Charalambous's team in eight matches while maintaining top position in Romanian Liga I. The Red Devils aim to achieve European knockout success for the first time since their 2013 knockout of Ajax through penalties.
For the first time since the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, when they eliminated Valerenga en route to the semi-finals, FCSB would win both legs of a European knockout match if they advance with a victory in this second leg.
That run from almost 20 years ago does bring back the memories of blowing a 3-0 aggregate lead 30 minutes into the second leg against Middlesbrough, but the home crowd will be hoping for similar success in the open Europa League this season.
Prior to this second leg, however, history is on the home team's side because FCSB has only lost to Greek opponents once in five games, that being a 6-3 loss to Panathinaikos in 1998.
This is bad news for PAOK, who have a terrible record against Romanian teams, winning only one of five games, and that was against Dinamo Bucharest in the first round of the 1970–71 Fairs Cup.
For the first time in six years, PAOK may lose three straight European games after losing to serious Sociedad on matchday eight of the league phase. This is a very serious prospect given that they have lost five of their past six away games on the continent.
