PAOK Salonika 6-1 Dinamo Minsk

Stefanos Athanasiadis scored a first-half hat-trick as PAOK Salonika thrashed 10-man Dinamo Minsk 6-1 in their opening Europa League Group K fixture on Thursday night.Nemanja Nikolic's fourth-minute own goal set the hosts on their way before Athanasiadis notched three times in the space of 16 minutes to put his side well in control.Dimitrios Papadopoulos added the fifth early in the second half to add the gloss to the victory before Dinamo's Slobodan Simovic was sent off in the 64th minute for his second bookable offence.Nikolic atoned for his error with an 80th-minute consolation score to salvage some pride for the visitors, but Fanis Tzandaris finished things off with PAOK's sixth goal in the final minute.Nikolic headed into his own net from six yards to put the Greek side ahead, but his mistake was quickly forgotten when Athanasiadis converted Razvan Rat's cross to fire in from the middle of the area in the 11th minute.The striker claimed his second five minutes later thanks to a close-range header, again after linking up with Rat, while his third came in the 27th minute - a low strike from close to goal, and a third assist from the former Shakhtar Donetsk and West Ham left-back.Papadopoulos scored in the 50th minute with another close-range effort which flew high into the net before things went from bad to worse for Minsk when Simovic saw red after a foul on Giorgos Katsikas - his second booking of the night.Nikolic salvaged some pride late on by firing in from a central position, but PAOK had the last word as Tzandaris' strike from the left side of the box hit Minsk for six.ends