Aberdeen vs. PAOK Betting Tips: Side with the visitors to secure maximum points

Aberdeen go in search of their first European victory of the season when the visiting PAOK roll into town for Thursday's Europa Conference League clash at 8pm.

Domestic and Europa League Conference performances have left a lot to be desired for Aberdeen so far. Barry Robson's men are five places worse off than they finished last term in the SPL, also picking up just a single point from their opening two European outings.

Greek Super League outfit PAOK have earned themselves back-to-back victories in this competition, already establishing a three-point cushion over Frankfurt in 2nd place, whom they defeated last time out. A third straight win would boost their chances of making the knockout stages considerably.

Aberdeen have played just two competitive games in the last 28 days, drawing in two consecutive home games with HJK Helsinki and St Johnstone before having a third fixture at the Pittodrie Stadium against Dundee postponed due to Storm Babet.

There are two ways to judge this inactivity: either Aberdeen will be well-rested or ill-prepared. We believe the latter will prove true, as the home side's lack of match sharpness will be their undoing against a team who have faired well in this competition.

PAOK have won five matches on the spin in the Europa Conference League, including two victories over fellow Scottish Premiership side Hearts during the tournament's two-legged play-offs.

Razvan Lucescu memorably guided this team to the quarter-finals of the inaugural Europa Conference League format two years ago, and look to be a live threat on the European stage given the results they've achieved across their two different UECL runs to date.

At a large price we're opting to back defender Konstantinos Koulierakis to add to his tally for the season. BetMGM's price of 15/1 is almost double the 8/1 on offer with bet365 for the same selection.

PAOK won't be all-out attacking in Scotland, but will instead pick and choose their moments like they did in the win over Fiorentina. That makes set-pieces the perfect vessel for grabbing a result against Aberdeen - an area which has seen the Scottish side concede 20% of their league goals from this situation.

Both of the Greek team's goals in that Fiorentina victory came from dead ball opportunities - first Andrija Zivkovic rippled the net with a glorious free-kick to open the scoring and our man Koulierakis snatched all three points at the death with his left-footed shot from a corner.

That puts the 19-year-old on three goals for the current campaign, already an outperformance of last season's total. Considering that the Greek centre half is just a tad shorter in the betting than his defensive partner William Troost-Ekong, who has scored zero goals and is priced at 16/1, we'll happily take the gamble on this huge anytime goalscorer punt.