Panathinaikos sacks Fabri after Platanias loss
Olympiakos conceded its first home draw on Sunday to PAOK, while Panathinaikos sacked its third coach for the season, Spaniard Fabri Gonzalez, after its 1-0 loss to Platanias at home.
There had been so much hype for the game between champion Olympiakos and visiting PAOK, as the first time that under the ownership of Ivan Savvidis PAOK would visit the Reds in Piraeus, but the game hardly lived up to it, ending 0-0. Olympiakos fans once again jeered their players off the pitch at the end.
There were no goals either in the games between Xanthi and Atromitos and between Aris and Panthrakikos, but the match at Thessaloniki was marred by the attack by fans on Aris players, that had the latter escape the ground from the back door hours after the game, and the alleged attack by Aris security staff against Panthrakikos’s Dimitris Papadopoulos, a Euro 2004 winner with Greece.
A goal by Thomas Nazlidis brought about the third win of Platanias over Panathinaikos this season, including the Greek Cup. The Greens’ loss brought the end of Fabri’s spell on their bench, with former assistant coach Yiannis Vonortas taking over as caretaker on Monday until the end of the season.
As a result Panathinaikos will have its fourth coach for the season, after Jesualdo Ferreira, Juan Ramon Rocha and Fabri, which is happening to the Greens for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
With just six goals in seven games this weekend, the match between OFI and PAS Giannina accounted for half of them, as OFI won 2-1 in a game that eventually was not hindered by the crash of the ground’s floodlight pylons during the week.
Levadiakos and AEK were probably happy not to lose in yet another goalless game on Sunday, but the clashes between AEK supporters and police before the game resulted in an AEK fan being treated for serious head injuries.
Veria beat Kerkyra 2-0 on Sunday in a game where the teams shared four red cards, while on Monday Panionios is to entertain Asteras Tripolis.
