Great day for PAS Giannina and Levadiakos
AEK slumped to a shock 3-0 loss at Levadiakos giving up the second spot of the table to Panathinaikos, while PAS Giannina appears to have scraped into the play-offs with its win at Xanthi, just as Olympiakos celebrated one more league title on Sunday.
The last round of games of the Super League only had one thing to decide, and that was which team would finish sixth to possibly benefit from the authorities’ refusal to allow Panionios to enter the play-offs on the grounds of licensing irregularities.
Olympiakos held a title fiesta for its fans at the Karaiskakis Stadium after trouncing relegated Kalloni 5-0, goals coming from the league’s top scorer Costas Fortounis and from David Fuster, Pajtim Kasami, Omar Elabdellaoui and Brown Ideye. The Reds finished the league with 85 points from 30 games, meaning they won all their games except for a draw (at Platanias) and a loss (at AEK).
At the same time Levadiakos scored two freakish goals via AEK defenders’ backs in the first half of the game at Livadia, and added a third in the second half with its top scorer Vangelis Mantzios, for a 3-0 triumph over its visitor from Athens.
This has allowed Panathinaikos to leap over its crosstown rival and take the driving seat for the play-offs that lead to the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers. Marcus Berg scored five times on Sunday as the Greens dismissed Panthrakikos 6-1 at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium. Lucas Villafaniez scored the hosts’ sixth, while relegated Panthrakikos pulled one back via Savvas Moudouroglou.
In other games Platanias and PAOK shared a goalless draw at Hania, which meant PAS Giannina, victor of host Xanthi 1-0 snatched the sixth place, in front of thousands of its fans who travelled across northern Greece to see their team stake a claim for a play-off position, if Panionios is ruled out.
The Nea Smyrni club ended a formidable season with a 1-0 home loss to Atromitos, Iraklis drew 0-0 with Panetolikos and Asteras Tripolis came from behind to beat Veria 2-1.
The final table reads as follows: Olympiakos 85, Panathinaikos 55, AEK 54, PAOK 45, Panionios 44, PAS Giannina 42, Asteras Tripolis 41, Atromitos 39, Platanias 39, Levadiakos 37, Panetolikos 35, Iraklis 35, Xanthi 33, Veria 27, Panthrakikos 17 and Kalloni 16.
Panathinaikos, AEK, PAOK and Atromitos have had three points deducted.
Unless any of the decisions made on the deduction of points and the licensing of Panionios gets overturned, the teams that finished between second and fifth will start the round-robin play-offs as follows: Panathinaikos three points, AEK two, PAOK one and PAS Giannina 0.
