Seventh consecutive title for Olympiakos, as Levadiakos and Veria go down
Olympiakos sealed its seventh Super League title in a row on Sunday, pending a court decision that might turn things around, while Levadiakos and Veria waved goodbye to the top flight with one game left to play.
The Reds needed one point from their home game against PAS Giannina, but produced an emphatic performance to win 5-0, goals coming from Marko Marin, Manuel Da Costa, Alberto de la Bella (twice) and Chori Dominguez; the Argentine scored from the penalty spot with tears in his eyes in what seemed his farewell to the Olympiakos fans.
Olympiakos is six points ahead of PAOK, but there is a small chance of having six points deducted when a court issues its verdict on the clashes between Olympiakos fans and players with the riot police after the Greek Cup game with AEK on April 13.
PAOK won 3-1 at Platanias, via goals by Amr Warda, Djalma Campos and Evgen Shakhov. Costas Mendrinos pulled one back for the Cretan team.
Panathinaikos moved up to third with a 1-0 home win over Atromitos, as Swedish international Guillermo Molins scored his first goal in a Panathinaikos jersey.
AEK rose to joint fourth and sank Levadiakos to the second division, winning 2-0 at Livadia with a late goal by Sergio Araujo and an even later own goal by Thanasis Moulopoulos. AEK has joined Panionios that went down 1-0 at Kerkyra.
Iraklis and Larissa ensured they stayed up through hard-fought home wins. Larissa was relieved to grab a 1-0 win over Xanthi, but the 2-1 win of Iraklis over Panetolikos was the happy end to a story that could become the script of a sports movie.
Iraklis spent almost the entire year at the foot of the table, mired in debt that had it rush for some last-minute payments to avoid having points docked, with managerial changes and with players going without pay for long periods. Yet somehow it managed to score a series of wins in the last few weeks to rise out of the drop zone, and come from behind on Sunday to beat Panetolikos 2-1 through a late Michalis Bastakos strike. Its coach Savvas Pantelidis definitely stakes a claim for manager of the year in the Super League.
Veria also tried to stage an escape act, but its 4-3 win against Asteras Tripolis was not enough to save it.
