Bohemians defeat PAOK setting up an interesting second-leg in the UEFA Europa Conference League third qualifying round

Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)

Bohemians continued their winning run at the Aviva Stadium with a 2-1 victory over Greece’s PAOK in the first-leg of their UEFA Europa Conference third-round qualifying tie.

With nearly half an hour gone, Scottish striker, Ali Coote found the net for Bohs after Georgie Kelly won the ball and drove into the box before teeing up the Scot, who smashed it into the net from the edge of the six-yard box.

At the start of the second half, Coote scored again to double the Irish side’s advantage with a sharp finish inside the box. Nelson Oliveira pulled an important goal back for PAOK in the 78th minute to make it 2-1 on the night and in turn setting up an exciting second-leg in Greece next week.

Despite the brace for Coote on the night, Bohemians manager Keith Long was keen to heap praise on the club’s key striker Kelly, who has hit the net 16 times already this season with 12 league goals in 20 matches and four in Europe.

“There’s no doubt Georgie’s [Kelly] bang in form during this European campaign so far. He’s amongst the goals, he’s our talisman and is at the top of his game”.

With the upcoming internationals for Ireland looming, Long commented on whether the striker is ready for international football.

“It’s not for me to say where he sits in international reckoning. Obviously, we are not blessed with goalscorers and he’s doing it on the European stage”.

It will be interesting to see if Kelly features in the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup Qualifiers at the start of September against Portugal, Azerbaijan and Serbia.

In the meantime, he’ll do his cause no harm if he helps Bohemians progress past PAOK in Greece next Thursday night.

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