The defending champion, Olympiakos got its second consecutive league win under new manager Zico thanks to a first half goal by Jaouad Zairi. The win will give the reds much needed confidence ahead of this week’s Champions League match away to Engligh Premier League side Arsenal on Tuesday in London.

Panathinaikos maintained their lead at the head of the Greek Super League by defeating AEK in their Athens derby. The goal by Dimitris Salpigidis saw PAO win their fifth consecutive match.

Olympiakos     1
Panionios        0

Jaouad Zairi’s first-half goal led the reds to a 1-0 win over visiting Panionios on Saturday night.

The win moves Olympiakos to the top of the Super League table with 13 points from five games.

Olympiakos, beat host AEK 2-1 on Wednesday in a postponed Greek league game, though they were the inferior side on the day.

Olympiakos’ striker Diogo almost put the reds up after 16 minutes with a header that went just wide.

Moments later the reds took the lead when Zairi scored what would be the winning goal with a shot from inside the area. It was Zairi’s first goal since he joined the club this season.

Olympiakos came close to making it 2-0 in the 68th when a shot by Dudu grazed the crossbar.

Ten minutes later, Leonardo shot wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Panionios had its best chance to tie the score in the final seconds of the game when goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis made a diving save on a powerful low shot by Bosko Balaban.

Aris         1
Xanthi     0

Sebastian Abreu scored his first goal of the season for Aris giving the Macedonian side a 1-0 home win against ten-man Xanthi.

The late goal from ‘El Loco’ came in the 91st minute, though Aris has peppered the visitors goal for large periods of the match.

The visitors had Dimitris Souanis sent off on the stroke of half-time for a reckless challenge.

Abreu looked to have earned Aris a penalty minutes from full time but the referee insisted there was little infringement despite television replays showing clear tugging on the Uruguayan’s shirt, which brought him down.

Aris notched their third win of the season, all three wins coming at home and with the same score line.

The win was also their fifth-consecutive win at Harilao, with their most recent defeat coming in the 2009 play-offs incidentally against Xanthi.

The win puts Aris into third place on the Super League table.

Larissa     0
Ioannina  0

Larissa continued their run of poor home results, drawing 0-0 with newly promoted PAS Ioannina.

It was an ugly game, with chances few and far between.

PAS looked like breaking the deadlock with a double chance early in the game, after 10 minutes of play.

A deep cross found the unmarked Maistorovic but he failed to connect with the ball, instead clearing it.

The ball somehow found its way back into the Larissa box, but Dino Seremet saved the ensuing one-on-one opportunity to keep Marinos Ouzounidis’ side on level terms.

Larissa had to wait until the 80th minute for their best chance of the game.

Stelios Giannakopoulos cleverly cut the ball across to Turk Tumer Metin who found himself unmarked in the heart of the PAS defence.

The striker then rounded one defender but put his shot barely inches away from the bottom right corner. A late Larissa penalty claim was dismissed by the referee and the scores remained 0-0. Larissa is yet to win at home since February 2009.

PAO    1
AEK    0

Panathinaikos maintained their 100 percent record in the Super League with a fifth straight win after beating AEK 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium to stay two points clear at the top from a resurgent Olympiakos.

In blustery conditions in Athens, AEK and Panathinaikos produced an entertaining derby during which both teams had chances to score.

The breakthrough for the visitors came in the 48th minute of the match when good link up play between Sebastian Leto, Costas Katsouranis and Dimitris Salpigidis ended with the Greek international striker striking a fierce shot into the ground from the edge of the area that swerved past Sebastian Saja in the AEK goal.

Salpigidis had been preferred to Djibril Cisse in the starting 11 as Henk ten Cate looked to shore up the midfield.

Cisse came on in the closing stages and had two good chances to make the three points safe but saw a lob go just wide and then pushed the ball too far ahead of him on counter attack.

The narrow margin meant that the Greens were on tenterhooks right to the end and it needed a good save from Alexis Tzorvas, in for Mario Galinovic in the PAO goal, to ensure that Panathinaikos remained clear at the top with 15 points from 5 games.

On Sunday, Asteras Tripolis beat Levadiakos with Daniel Cesarec continuing his impressive start to the season with the winner. On Crete, Ergotelis thrashed Panthrakikos 4-0 to leave the visitors without a point so far this season.

In Athens, Atromitos held stuttering PAOK to a 0-0 draw while newcomers Kavala beat visitors Iraklis with a goal from Douglao to continue their impressive start to the season.