El-Arabi scores again as Olympiakos puts four past Aris
Olympiakos and PAOK scored comfortable home wins as they have turned the Super League into a two-horse race. Panathinaikos has climbed to fourth.
The Reds remained one point above PAOK thanks to a 4-2 home victory over the other Thessaloniki club, Aris, in a very entertaining game at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. Top scorer Youssef El-Arabi was on the score sheet for Olympiakos, alongside Guilherme, Omar Elabellaoui and Mathieu Valbuena. Lindsay Rose and Nicolas Diguiny scored for Aris. This was the sixth goal for El-Arabi in the last seven games.
PAOK defeated Asteras Tripolis 3-1 without having to work particularly hard. Karol Swiderski, Dimitris Pelkas and Lazaros Lambrou were on target for PAOK, before Mark Fernandez pulled one back for the visitors.
AEK also had a decent enough game, to beat Larissa 3-0 in Athens courtesy of goals by three Portuguese players: Andre Simoes, Nelson Oliveira and Helder Lopes. The Yellows remained 13 points off the pace, and six above Panathinaikos that beat Xanthi 1-0 on the road to rise to the fourth spot for the first time this season. Former Manchester United striker Federico Macheda scored for the Greens.
Four teams are tied in fifth, as the top six will advance to the play-offs, the round-robin mini-league that will decide the champion and the teams to play in Europe next season. They are Aris and Xanthi, along with Atromitos that shared a goalless draw with Volos, and OFI, that defeated bottom team Panionios 2-1 away.
Panetolikos snatched a point on the fifth minute of injury time with its equalizer (1-1) at home against Lamia to rise to three points above Panionios. Only the last team will be automatically relegated, with the 13th facing a play-off with the runner-up of Super League 2.
