Olympiakos, PAOK stroll to home wins as AEK stumbles

AEK’s slip-up at Larissa on Saturday left PAOK alone in second, one point behind Super League leader Olympiakos, as both the Thessaloniki and Piraeus giants scored easy home wins on Sunday. Yet the weekend’s best match was at Ioannina.

Larissa held AEK to a goalless draw at home to remain ninth at the table, while AEK dropped to third on 38 points.

Olympiakos defeated ten-man Xanthi 3-0 at home through two goals by the league’s top scorer Karim Ansarifard and one by Costas Fortounis to climb to 41 points, while PAOK beat Apollon Smyrnis by the same score to rise to 40 points, goals coming from Robert Mak, Aleksandar Prijovic and an own goal by Emmanuel Kone.

Atromitos is fourth on 34 after an exciting 2-2 draw at PAS Giannina on Sunday: It led after 71 minutes through an Abiola Dauda penalty. Just as PAS staged a full comeback on the 87th and the 89th minute via goals by Pedro Conde and Franck Betra, Atromitos snatched an injury-time equalizer with Aristotelis Karasalidis.

Fifth-placed Panionios also grabbed a late equalizer to draw 1-1 at Panetolikos and move one point clear of sixth Asteras Tripolis that lost 1-0 at Lamia. Barring a Greek Cup upset, the top five teams of the league qualify to next season’s European competitions.

Panathinaikos returned to the top half of the table with an emphatic 4-0 home win over Kerkyra. Christos Donis, Mattias Johansson, Robin Lod and Omri Altman were on target for the Greens that scored more than two goals for the first time this year to climb to eighth.

Platanias scored its first win in four months, downing Levadiakos 1-0 at Hania, but remained rooted at the bottom of the table, four points from safety.