Reds win but only just
The end of the first half of soccer’s Super League yesterday simply summed up what fans had seen in the 15 rounds played so far. The police and fans of Panathinaikos and OFI clashed in the game between the two teams at Iraklion, while Olympiakos needed a controversial injury-time penalty to beat bottom club Thrasyvoulos 2-1 at home. Olympiakos led through a personal effort by Sebastian Leto in the 21st minute, but Yiannis Chloros put Thrasyvoulos back on level terms eight minutes later. Luciano Galletti converted the controversial penalty to give the Reds another home win. PAOK dropped two points in Serres as local Panserraikos in the second half equalized the eighth-minute goal by Ilias Anastasakos for PAOK through Sotiris Constantinidis (1-1). Panathinaikos is now within one point of PAOK after beating OFI 3-0 in Iraklion, in a game that was interrupted for 10 minutes due to crowd trouble inside and outside the stadium. Second-half goals by Antonis Petropoulos, Dimitris Salpigidis and Ante Rukavina gave the Greens their third straight win, against a 10-man OFI due to the red card given to Manolis Roumbakis. AEK needed a late Edinho winner to down visiting Ergotelis 3-2. The Cretan side had twice equalized at the Olympic Stadium. In the other matches of the weekend, Iraklis beat Xanthi 1-0, Panthrakikos and Aris ended goalless, Larissa came from behind to dismiss Levadiakos 2-1 and Panionios thrashed Asteras Tripolis 3-0 in Nea Smyrni. Olympiakos leads after the first half of the season (15 games) with 36 points, with PAOK at 30 and Panathinaikos at 29. AEK rose to fourth with 24 points as Aris fell to fifth with 23. Larissa and Panionios caught up with Xanthi in sixth, with 21 points. Ergotelis and Panthrakikos have 19, Iraklis rose to 11th with 18, Levadiakos stayed at 16, Asteras with 14 points remained clear of the drop zone, which still includes OFI with 11, Panserraikos with 10 and Thrasyvoulos with eight. The league now takes a week’s recess for the holidays and restarts January 3-4.
