Fradi suffer five-goal defeat in Greece

Despite resolving pre-match to retaining possession of the ball for long periods in order to succeed in gaining points in Greece, Ferencváros fell behind in the tenth minute against PAOK after giving the ball away in their own half of the pitch.

An attritional first half thereafter was punctuated by a precise 29th-minute free-kick from PAOK's Thomas which doubled the hosts' lead and although Fradi saw a lot of the ball for next half an hour or more, they were unable to find an accurate final pass to create many if any real goalscoring opportunities. 

As the match wore on, Hungary's reigning league champions lost momentum and surrendered the initiative to the home side, who accepted gratefully. Visiting goalkeeper Dénes Dibusz kept Fradi in the game with saves, but he was helpless to prevent Calov from adding a third goal in the 76th minute.

Former Fradi player Zivkovic rubbed salt in the wound when he dispatched a penalty three minutes later to make it 4-0 and the scoring was completed a minute from normal time when Despodov converted a rebound to make it five unanswered goals for the club from Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

Fradi slip back from 11th to 16th in the Europa League table following this defeat, but seem likely to qualify for the play-off phase with the nine points they already have, the teams which finish between 9th and 24th entering a home-and-away play-off to determine which eight teams will join those who finished in the top eight of the league table in the knockout stages of the competition. The two remaining rounds of the league phase will be completed in February 2025. 

PAOK (GRE) 5–0 Ferencvárosi TC (HT: 2–0)

Goalscorers: Taison (10), Thomas (29), Calov (76), Zivkovic (79, pen), Despodov (89)