T&T international Levi Garcia played the first 65 minutes as his AEK Athens edged PAOK 1-0 in the first leg of their Betsson Greek Cup quarterfinal encounter at the OPAP Arena, Athens, Wednesday.
AEK had a chance to take the lead inside the first 22 minutes from the penalty spot but former Manchester United forward Anthony Martial of France missed his attempt as the score remained goalless at the half-time interval.
Eight minutes after the restart, Martial redeemed himself when he set up Argentine Erik Lamela for the go-ahead item.
The 27-year-old Garcia who was deployed as the lone striker saw his involvement in the game come to an end in the 65th minute for Frantzdy Pierrot.
PAOK suffered a late blow to their chances of pulling off a second-leg win when Dejan Lovren was red-carded in the second minute of time added-on at the end of the 90 minutes with the second-leg set for January 1, 2025.
In the other first-leg matches played yesterday, OFI trounced Panachaiki 5-0 and Asteras blanked Panionios 2-0 while Olympiacos awaits the winner of the Atromitos and Panathinaikos round-of-16 encounter with the latter ahead 2-1 after the first-leg.
Domestically, Garcia, who has four league goals and nine in total on the season, and AEK are in the midst of a tight battle for the Greece Stoiximan Super League title sitting in the joint second spot on 30 points from 15 matches with PAOK, one point behind Olympiacos and one more than fourth-placed Panathinaikos.
Last season, the T&T international scored 11 goals and added two assists in 12 Super League matches and scored two goals and provided one assist in eight Super League playoff games as AEK ended as runners-up.
