Challenger’s pace stumbles

Panathinaikos slips to third place, five points behind Olympiakos, after 1-0 loss at Aris

Panathinaikos’s pursuit of front-runner Olympiakos stumbled last night with a 1-0 away loss against Aris that left the Athens team in third place, five points behind its Piraeus rival.

Playing a day earlier, on Saturday, Olympiakos scored two goals in two minutes to beat host Kerkyra 2-0 and stay atop the Greek league. Brazilian defender Julio Cesar and Ieroklis Stoltidis scored in the 37th and 38th minutes for Olympiakos’s 11th league win.

The Piraeus club now has 33 points after 13 games. AEK, which beat Ionikos 2-0 in Saturday’s other game, moved up to second place with 30 points, two ahead of Panathinaikos. Guilherme Weisheimer headed in Aris’s winning goal in the 54th minute.

Larissa, playing to a capacity home crowd, rebounded from a goal down to beat Ergotelis 2-1 yesterday and remain on course for a UEFA Cup berth. Iraklis, a slow starter this season after qualifying for the UEFA Cup last season, defeated Aegaleo 2-1 to step out of relegation territory. Relegation-threatened Apollon Kalamaria snatched an away draw against Atromitos with an injury-time equalizer from the penalty spot. Panionios drew 1-1, away, against Thessaloniki team PAOK. Interestingly, the Athens club has drawn all four of its games in Thessaloniki this season against the Superleague’s four clubs based in that city. OFI was defeated 2-0 by visiting Xanthi. (AP, Kathimerini)