Derby stalemate has PAOK go alone on top
None of the three major teams of Athens scored over the weekend in the Super League, leaving the Derby of Eternal Rivals goalless and AEK defeated at Agrinio. That has allowed the Thessaloniki giants to rise to the top level of the table, with PAOK alone on top and Aris joint second.
More than 50,000 Panathinaikos supporters saw their team draw 0-0 with Olympiakos in Greece’s biggest derby at the Olympic Stadium of Athens on Sunday.
Both teams had their chances in a perfectly balanced encounter, that had everything except for a goal.
A day earlier AEK went down at Panetolikos 1-0, with the hosts going up to fifth. The players of coach Giannis Petrakis played a very clever game and absorbed AEK’s pressure, while striking in a counter attack with Miguel Luis on the 73rd after a Haris Mavrias cross from the right.
All this gave PAOK the chance to move from second to first, and it did it with two late goals at Livadia to beat Levadiakos 2-0 on Sunday. The champion was lucky to see its host miss a penalty, before Mady Camara and Stefan Schwab gave PAOK all three points.
Aris is now joint second with Olympiakos and AEK, as it followed up its wins over AEK and PAOK with a 2-0 home victory against Lamia, thanks to a first-half brace by the league’s top scorer Loren Moron.
In other games, OFI rose to joint fifth after beating bottom team Panserraikos 3-2 away, Asteras Tripolis went seventh through its road win at 10-man Kallithea with a 3-1 score, and Volos upset Atromitos with a 2-1 come-from-behind win.
PAOK has 16 points, AEK, Aris and Olympiakos have 14, Panetolikos and OFI are on 11, while Asteras and Panathinaikos follow with nine points.
The league will now go into recess for the next couple of weeks for the Nations League games.
