AEK have sealed third place in the regular season of the Greek Super League, after their 0-1 win in their game with Aris at ‘Kleanthis Vikelidis’.

The visitors scored just after five minutes, stealing the ball on the right side and breaking free on the counter, passing the ball nicely in midfield.

Damian Szymanski, a new arrival during the January transfer window, saw Christos Albanis’ run inside the area and fed him a delightful through ball, with the Greek international player flicking the ball past goalkeeper Julian Cuesta.

After their goal, AEK looked happy to sit back and defend as the Aris forward line attempted to break down their well-organised back line, but saw most of their efforts come to nothing.

They weren’t really able to create much either.

The Aris team asked for a penalty kick after Giannis Fetfatzidis went down after heavy contact by Victor Klonaridis, but the referee waved play on.

Nigerian forward Brown Ideye was forced to come off after suffering an injury on his lower back just after 40 minutes.

The final whistle saw the team from Athens celebrate their second consecutive win in a derby after the one against Panathinaikos and will now end the regular season in third place.

In other games for the 24th round of the Greek league, first-place contenders Olympiacos and PAOK both continued with victories against Panionios and Larissa respectively.

The red-and-whites had very little trouble, annihilating the almost relegated team from Nea Smyrni, 4-0.

With the scoreboard already reading three goals to nothing before the ten-minute mark, Pedro Martins had the chance to rest some of his main players for the difficult week ahead of them.

The club from Piraeus will face Arsenal for the round of 32 of the Europa League on Thursday night, while on Sunday there is the first place decider between them and PAOK.

The champions almost got into trouble at AEL FC Arena as they were able to gain a 0-2 advantage thanks to goals by Dimitris Limnios and Douglas Augusto against Larissa by the end of the first half, but the home side pulled one back with a Theocharis Iliadis effort and threatened to equalise.

But their attempts all stopped in front of goalkeeper Zivko Zivkovic, who did a great job of protecting PAOK’s slender lead.

In other games, Panathinaikos found their way back to to the victorious path by thrashing Panetolikos 3-1, in a game that was marked by Giorgos Vagannidis’ first ever goal just a few days after renewing his contract with the club.

This win, combined with Aris’ loss, means that the greens have all but sealed fourth place on the ladder.

GREEK SUPER LEAGUE RESULTS
AEL-PAOK 1-2 (67′ Iliadis – 14′ Limnios, 45+2′ Douglas)
Olympiacos-Panionios 4-0 (4′ Hassan, 6′, 24′ El Arabi, 9′ Fortounis)
Panathinaikos-Panetolikos 3-1 (23′ Vagiannidis, 39′ Zahid, 49′ pen. Macheda – 90+1′ Dauda)Volos-Asteras Tripolis 0-1 (85′ Deletic)
Volos-Asteras Tripolis (85′ Deletic)
Xanthi-Lamia 0-0
Aris-AEK 0-1 (5′ Albanis)
OFI-Atromitos 1-0 (82′ Figueiredo)