Unlikely pair on the Super League summit
Veria and Atromitos are sitting pretty at the top of the Super League after the second round of games thanks to their away wins that made them the only clubs to have six points, as champion Olympiakos was denied a perfect record by Panetolikos at Agrinio.
For a second year in a row Olympiakos failed to beat Panetolikos away, as its 47th-minute opener by substitute Pajtim Kasami was canceled out by a Giorgos Koussas header 12 minutes from the end on Saturday night, for a 1-1 final score.
This was also the last game for Javier Saviola with Olympiakos, as the much-traveled Argentine was on Monday offloaded to Italy’s Hellas Verona.
This meant that Veria, victor of Gennaro Gattuso’s OFI on Crete on Monday night through a solitary Nikos Kaltsas goal, and Atromitos, who beat promoted Niki Volou 1-0 via Sokratis Fytanidis on Sunday, lead the table by two points from Olympiakos and the rest of the chasing pack as the Super League goes to a one-week recess for the game between Greece and Romania on Sunday, September 7.
Among that chasing pack are PAOK, who thrashed Platanias 4-0 at Hania courtesy of goals by Stefanos Athanasiadis, Dimitris Salpingidis, Robert Mak and Yiannis Skondras, as well as Panathinaikos, that performed a memorable comeback in injury time on Sunday.
The Greens hosted Panionios behind closed doors due to a stadium ban dating from last season, and found themselves trailing with four minutes to go through an Olivier Boumale strike. However the Cup holders made the most of the five minutes of injury time, equalizing with Ahmed Ajagun on the 91st and snatching victory through a Mladen Petric header on the fourth minute of time added on.
In other weekend games, Xanthi drew 0-0 with Kerkyra, Kalloni Lesvou scored its first ever Super League win on Lesvos – having played in exile all of last season – downing Ergotelis 2-0, Panthrakikos shared a 1-1 draw with PAS Giannina and Asteras Tripolis came from behind to defeat Levadiakos 2-1 at home.
Ergotelis’s second loss in as many games (both away from Crete) has resulted in the dismissal of Spanish manager Juan Ferrando.
