Da Costa and Ideye give Olympiakos derby win over Panathinaikos

Two late goals by Manuel Da Costa and Brown Ideye gave Olympiakos a 3-1 win over Panathinaikos in the “Derby of Eternal Rivals” in Piraeus on Sunday.

Olympiakos came from behind to win the only encounter between the two teams this season (the match at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium had been called off in November) and put the icing on the cake of its league title.

The Greens led after just three minutes with a Marcus Berg goal from a Sebastian Leto through-ball, and could have gone two up had Stathis Tavlaridis not missed from close range after the ball hit the Roberto crossbar from a Rodrigo Moledo shot.

Then Esteban Cambiasso equalized for Olympiakos with a shot from outside the area, although the assistant referee had flagged it as offside due to an Olympiakos player, Chori Dominguez, in irregular position blocking the Panathinaikos keeper’s view. However referee Giorgos Kyzas took it upon himself to count the goal that made it 1-1.

A similar story followed three minutes from the end, when Da Costa headed home a Costas Fortounis free-kick from the left, but another Olympiakos player, Ideye, was in irregular position in front of keeper Luke Steele.

There is no shadow of doubt about the third goal of Olympiakos two minutes later, when Ideye capitalized on an error by Tavlaridis to slot the ball past Steele for 3-1.

Notably the Olympiakos fans behaved well enough during the game despite seeing their team trailing almost from the start. However the provocations to the Panathinaikos bench in injury time led to rival team officials clashing and to Panathinaikos coach Andrea Stramaccioni stating after the game that he feels sorry for the state of Greek soccer.

PAOK had caretaking coach Vladan Ivic on its bench for the first time and enjoyed a 3-0 win at the rain-soaked pitch of Panetolikos on Saturday, two goals coming from Stefanos Athanasiadis and one from Nikos Korovesis.

Veria all but sealed its survival and the relegation of Panthrakikos and Kalloni Lesvou with the 1-1 draw it snatched at Iraklis, while Kalloni lost 2-0 at home to PAS Giannina, and Panthrakikos is facing a very tough game at AEK on Monday. With four games left to play, Veria is on 26 points, Panthrakikos has 17 and a game in hand, and Kalloni is on 15.

In other games Panionios has Tasos Bakasetas score a hat-trick in its 3-0 win over Xanthi, Atromitos came from 1-0 down to beat visiting Asteras Tripolis 2-1, and Platanias thrashed host Levadiakos 3-0 away.