Green debutants’ day casts misery aside

The delightful debut of Sebastian Leto with Panathinaikos in his second spell at the club and the debut goals by Lucas Evangelista and Lucas Villafañes for the Greens offered on Sunday some distraction from the misery that has engulfed the Greek game, while PAOK suffered a shock loss at struggling Panthrakikos.

After one of the most turbulent weeks in its history, Greek soccer tried to return to normality over the weekend with some Super League action, although the match of champion Olympiakos at Iraklis was postponed on police concerns it would not be able to devote the necessary resources for another visit by the Reds to Thessaloniki, after the ugly scenes at Toumba on Wednesday.

Third-placed Panathinaikos beat Atromitos 2-0 at home to return to winning ways after a string of poor results and ahead of the derby with Olympiakos in Piraeus next Sunday.

It was an evening of South American galore at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, as Brazilian Evangelista scored his first goal in a green jersey before Argentine Leto’s entry as a substitute led to the maiden goal by his countryman Villafañes for Panathinaikos.

PAOK led in the first half at Komotini via a Dimitris Hatziisaias goal but Panthrakikos eventually won 2-1 through goals by Igor de Souza and Thanasis Papageorgiou, to come to within eight points from safety, where Veria sits.

Panionios, in fifth, has cut the distance to fourth-placed PAOK to one point after its goalless draw at Platanias on Saturday, while the games between Veria and Levadiakos and between Xanthi and Kalloni also finished goalless.

The only other game to have some goals to offer was the 2-0 win of PAS Giannina over visiting Panetolikos.

On Monday Asteras Tripolis meets AEK.