PAOK beats Olympiakos to bring fresh interest into Super League

PAOK extended Olympiakos’s losing streak to three games in the Super League, beating the leader 2-0 in Thessaloniki and giving fresh interest to the championship.

Second-half goals by Yevhen Shakhov and Aleksandar Prijovic, both within seven minutes, gave a clearly superior PAOK a deserved win at Toumba that cut its distance from the top to eight points, with seven games left to play.

The result puts Olympiakos manager Paulo Bento in a precarious position, just four days before the Europa League clash with Turkish champion Besiktas in Piraeus.

PAOK remains third behind Panionios that clashes with AEK on Monday and will get within four points from Olympiakos if it wins at home.

Fourth-placed Panathinaikos put five past bottom team Veria (5-0) at home on Saturday, with Marcus Berg scoring a hat-trick to rise to the top of the scorers’ table with 16 goals. Viktor Klonaridis and Lucas Villafanes were also on the scoresheet.

Xanthi stayed fifth, two points behind the Greens, beating visiting Platanias 1-0.

Asteras Tripolis – which last season had played in the group stage of the Europa League – is sinking ever lower with five consecutive defeats in the league plus two in the cup. On Sunday it led Kerkyra 1-0 in Tripoli but the Corfu club fought back to triumph 2-1.

Asteras remained five points above the drop zone (with the last two going down) as besides Veria’s loss Iraklis also suffered a defeat, with Atromitos scoring an injury-time goal to beat the Thessaloniki club 1-0 at Peristeri.

In other Saturday games Larissa drew 1-1 with PAS Giannina and Panetolikos left Levadiakos two points above Iraklis winning 2-0 at home.