By George Georgakopoulos

Olympiakos is 13 points away from clinching its third consecutive Super League title, nine rounds before the end, after defeating its closest rival Asteras Tripolis on Saturday thanks to a late Costas Mitroglou goal, while Panathinaikos slumped to another home loss, this time to Xanthi.

The Reds won 1-0 at Tripoli after playing for almost 40 minutes with a man’s advantage after the red card shown to Papa Khalifa Sankare in the 56th.

The result also allowed PAOK to climb to second, 15 points behind Olympiakos, after beating OFI 3-1 at home thanks to goals by Stefanos Athanasiadis, Giorgos Katsikas and Liam Lawrence.

Atromitos failed to capitalize fully on Asteras’s defeat as it conceded a goalless draw at home to struggling Veria on Saturday.

Xanthi scored the second win at Panathinaikos in its history, as the first-half goal by Serge-Aristide Die was enough to give the Thrace club a 1-0 win at the Olympic Stadium. The only cheer by the Greens’ fans was when they heard on their radios that the club’s basketball team had won the Greek Cup.

AEK feels much more secure after defeating bottom side Kerkyra on Corfu on Sunday courtesy of a Roger Guerreiro penalty kick, while PAS Giannina scored its first ever win at Nea Smyrni, beating Panionios 1-0. Panthrakikos has also taken a leap to safety seeing off Levadiakos 3-0 at home.

On Monday Platanis faces Aris in a relegation dogfight that Aris coach Yiannis Michalitsos has branded a “seven-pointer.”