Bruno Gama settles Thessaloniki derby for Aris
Aris beat crosstown rival PAOK in a bitter derby on Sunday to stay two points behind leader Olympiakos that trounced table-propping Lamia.
The Thessaloniki derbies always tend to be hard-fought, but this season the Aris vs PAOK encounter at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium had some added interest from the fact the two teams are among the Super League table’s top-three.
In a very tight match on Sunday evening Aris won 1-0 thanks to a Bruno Gama penalty on the 40th minute, while PAOK was awarded a second-half penalty that the referee revoked upon reviewing the video.
Aris has therefore risen to 26 points from 11 games, while Olympiakos is on 28 from 10 games thanks to its 6-0 win at 10-man Lamia. The Reds had Andreas Bouchalakis, Yann M’Vila, Youssef El-Arabi, Hillal Soudani, Hugo Cuypers and Giorgos Masouras on target.
The most memorable match of the weekend, however, was that between Apollon and AEK which the Yellows won 4-3. AEK led 1-0, 3-1 and 4-2, goals coming from Karim Ansarifard (twice) Levi Garcia (straight from a corner kick) and Nelson Oliveira. However Apollon kept coming back into the game thanks to goals by Mark Fernandez, Savvas Tsabouris and Dimos Baxevanidis, the last one on the 94th minute, while a minute on Apollon was given a penalty, that a little later was canceled for an offside decision by the VAR.
AEK lies fourth, on 22 points from 10 games, two behind PAOK (that has played 11 games), and four more than fifth Panathinaikos. For its 12th game of the season Panathinaikos returned to its historic home ground of Apostolos Nikolaidis and beat PAS Giannina 2-0 on Saturday through strikes by Lucas Villafanes and Aitor Cantalapiedra.
In other weekend matches, OFI downed host Larissa 1-0 to rise to sixth, and Volos shared a goalless draw at home with Panetolikos.
On Monday Asteras hosts Atromitos in Tripoli.
