PAOK and PAO earn advantage ahead of play-offs
The regular season of the Super League ended on Sunday, and with Olympiakos already crowned champion and Levadiakos and Veria going down, the only thing left to settle was the points with which PAOK, Panathinaikos, AEK and Panionios would enter the Champions League qualification play-offs. Sunday’s victories of PAOK and Panathinaikos gave them extra advantage over the other two teams.
Olympiakos completed the season with a 2-0 win at Panetolikos, goals coming from Chori Dominguez and Tariq Elyounoussi. The Piraeus club is already searching for its next manager as caretaker Takis Lemonis bows out. Frenchman Remi Garde is the favorite to take over.
Runner-up PAOK is entering the play-offs with two points after trouncing Kerkyra 5-1 at home. Ergys Kace, Efthymis Koulouris, Diego Biseswar, Amr Warda and Aleksandar Prijovic were on target for PAOK, with Giorgos Pamlidis temporarily equalizing for the Corfu team.
Panathinaikos will have one point at the start of the play-offs thanks to its 2-0 win over Larissa at home. Swede Marcus Berg took his tally to 22 goals this season – topping the Super League’s scorers’ chart for the first time – after Sebastian Leto had given the Greens the lead.
AEK and Panionios begin the play-offs pointless as they both failed to win on Sunday. AEK drew 1-1 at PAS Giannina and Panionios suffered an unexpected 3-1 home loss to relegated Levadiakos.
Xanthi finished sixth defeating bottom club Veria 3-0. It is four points behind the last team that made the play-offs, but is still harboring some hope of snatching a ticket to the Europa League in case one of the teams in the play-offs does not get a permit to play in Europe for financial reasons.
Eighth Atromitos beat seventh Platanias 4-1 and Iraklis grabbed a 2-2 draw at Asteras Tripolis.
The final standings are as follows: Olympiakos 67, PAOK 61, Panathinaikos 57, AEK 53, Panionios 52, Xanthi 48, Platanias 42, Atromitos 39, PAS Giannina 36, Kerkyra 32, Panetolikos 31, Iraklis 29, Asteras Tripolis 28, Larissa 28, Levadiakos 26 and Veria 22.
The play-offs are set to kick off on May 10.
