PAOK took great advantage of the undeserved passage into the Champions League play-off stage by holding Schalke to a 1-1 draw in Germany, but they still face an uphill task in their attempt to reach the group stages.

The Miners remain the favourites to go through, but they will have to work really hard in order to end a four-match winless run.

Having finally secured Champions League qualification through league finish, PAOK were determined to make it to the group stages, and in turn heavily reinforced the squad.

However, while boss Huub Stevens and a number of new players arrived, it was soon clear that club officials haven’t done a great job in the summer transfer window.

As a result, PAOK suffered a 3-1 aggregate defeat to Metalist Kharkiv in the Champions League third qualifying stage, but they were, nonetheless, awarded a place in the next round after the Ukranian side had been thrown out of the competition.

Having surprised everyone to hold Schalke to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, PAOK are 2.25 (5/4) with Paddy Power to make it to the group stages.

Huub Stevens’ side go into this game on the back of a 2-0 loss to Panaitolikos, but it is highly unlikely they will be too concerned by the setback.

Zvonimir Vukic and Nikolaos Spyropoulos are likely to miss out, but Salpingidis, Lazar, Lawrence, Katsouranis and Lino should be recalled.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Jacobo – Kitsiou, Katsouranis, Vitor, Lino – Lawrence, Tziolis, Lazar – Stoch, Salpingidis, Lucas.

All the hard work that helped Schalke secure the final Champions League berth in Bundesliga could go down the drain unless the team do not show a massive improvement in the return leg against PAOK.

In spite of the good summer recruitment, the Miners had a dismal start to the season, picking up just one point from three league matches while only sharing spoils with the Greek side in the first leg of the Champions League play-offs.

Meanwhile, they have had a number of important players pick up serious injuries, so no doubt they face a mountain to climb in Thessaloniki.

Despite failing to win any of their last four competitive fixtures, Schalke are 2.38 (11/8) favourites with BetVictor to triumph at Stadio Toumba.

As we have already mentioned, boss Jans Keller faces a genuine selection headache ahead of the all-important clash in Greece.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Anthony Annan and Chinedu Obasi are definitely out, whereas Atsuto Uchida and Sead Kolasinac face fitness tests. The good news is Jefferson Farfan has recovered from an ankle problem.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Hildebrand – Uchida, Matip, Howedes, Fuchs – Neustadter, Jones – Farfan, Draxler, Clemens – Szalai.

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