ATHENS: Nine-man PAOK beat champions AEK Athens 2-0 to clinch the Greek Cup on Saturday night after fans from both teams clashed with police outside the Olympic stadium ahead of the game. Vierinha put them ahead with fine free kick in the 65th minute and Dimitris Pelkas added another in stoppage time to secure PAOK’s second consecutive final win against AEK, who played with 10 men for the last few minutes. Spaniard David Borbalan was picked to referee the game as the country faces a potential soccer ban from world governing body FIFA over the state of the sport. Greek authorities deployed some 5,000 officers to safeguard the game, a repeat of last year’s final at which fans also clashed.
Published in Daily Times, May 14th 2018.