Wins for Reds and Greens, while PAOK suffers
The Super League has turned into a two-horse race, with a favorite (Olympiakos) and an outsider (Panathinaikos). They both beat their opponents from Iraklio over the weekend and are set to meet at Panathinaikos’s home ground next Sunday. The third title hopeful, PAOK, slumped to yet another bad away loss on Sunday, at Atromitos, to get to 11 points from the top.
For 70 minutes relegation-threatened Ergotelis somehow managed to keep an impressive Olympiakos in check in Piraeus on Saturday.
Seeing that his players kept firing blanks, Olympiakos manager Vitor Pereira introduced two super-subs, and Jimmy Durmaz and Costas Fortounis (twice) scored in the last 20 minutes to gift the Reds a 3-0 win, five days before their return to Europa League action against Dnirpo in Ukraine.
Panathinaikos led 1-0 at OFI Crete on Sunday through Nikos Karelis, OFI ended the first half on top (2-1) via a Manolis Moniakis free-kick and a Giorgi Merebashvili penalty, but the Greens emerged victorious with a 3-2 score courtesy of second-half strikes by Danijel Pranjic and Karelis.
Two Panathinaikos players and an assistant coach were hit by objects thrown by OFI fans who see their team destined for relegation. They even hurled a Molotov cocktail onto the pitch after the final whistle.
“Today the sky is celebrating, happy birthday!” read the T-shirt that Javier Umbides had under his Atromitos shirt, and it was indeed a party under the Peristeri sky for Atromitos on Sunday as the local Blues thrashed 10-man PAOK 4-0, the other goals coming by Elini Dimoutsos, Costas Katsouranis and Stefano Napoleoni.
Not a bad debut at all for Atromitos manager Nikos Nioplias, while that was Katsouranis’s first goal in an Atromitos shirt, and against his former club, too.
Panetolikos has become the favorite for the fourth spot in the regular season after beating rival Asteras Tripolis 2-0 at home, while play-off hopeful PAS Giannina was bruised at home by struggling Panionios with a 3-1 score.
In other weekend games Veria downed Levadiakos 2-0 away and Kerkyra defeated once-mighty Kalloni 2-0 on Corfu.
On Monday Xanthi hosts Platanias. Panthrakikos took three points without breaking a sweat as it was scheduled to face withdrawn Niki Volou.
