Panathinaikos and Olympiakos continue their battle at the top of the Greek football league with victories over the weekend. However both teams did not have it all their way.
Olympiakos have reduced the gap from Panathinaikos at the top of the Super League back to five points after an unconvincing home win over Larissa on Sunday.
The Reds won the game 2-1 but were booed off the pitch by some of their fans as pressure mounts on coach Zico.
The Brazilian said in his post-match news conference that he has no intention of resigning after seeing Olympiakos dumped out of the cup and losing two consecutive games in the league. However, speculation is rife in the Greek press that Zico’s days at the Piraeus club are numbered.
It could have been so different had Olympiakos kept up the momentum from the first-half, which saw the home side take a 2-0 lead.
Italian midfielder Enzo Maresca opened the scoring in the 37th minute with a neat finish inside the area.
Three minutes later, Luciano Galletti swiveled in the box and scuffed a shot through a defender’s legs to give Olympiakos a seemingly unassailable 2-0 lead.
However, the Reds were lackluster in the second-half and despite the introduction of Diogo and Matt Derbyshire up front could not find a third goal.
Instead, Larissa created the chances and got back into the game in the 81st minute through shot from Romeu from the edge of the area, which hit the post and then bounced off Antonis Nikopolidis to roll over the line.
The Reds survived a couple of late scares but three points did not please the home fans and it looks like there will be some tough weeks ahead for the Piraeus club.
The win moved the champions onto 39 points from 17 games.
Djibril Cisse continued his rich goalscoring vein by notching up two against Xanthi on Saturday.
However, it was not plain sailing for PAO who survived a late scare to return from northern Greece with all three points.
Cisse, the Super League’s top scorer, set Nikos Nioplias’s team on its way in the 26th minute when he scored the opener, just four minutes after hitting the post for the visitors.
However, the league leaders were not able to capitalise on this early goal and found Xanthi’s resistance difficult to break down.
The second goal did not come until the 88th minute when Cisse broke free of the home side’s defence, poked the ball past the onrushing keeper and the tapped it into the empty net.It looked as if the three points were secure but Xanthi hit back just a minute later through Dimitris Souanis to set up a tense finale.
Panathinaikos survived a couple of close calls after the referee added four minutes of injury time. The Greens moved to 44 points after 17 games.
AEK were not able to capitalize on their memorable mid-week win over Olympiakos as they were held to a 3-3 draw against Atromitos on Sunday despite being 3-1 up at one stage.
Costas Nembegleras had opened the scoring for the visitors in just the 9th minute but AEK struck back with goals from Savvas Gentsoglou three minutes later and midweek hero Nacho Scocco in first-half injury time.
Ismael Blanco added a third in the 53rd minute and AEK seemed to be heading for all three points.
But a controversial penalty converted by Atromitos’s Emmanuel Perrone in the 69th minute turned the game around.
The Argentinean scored again two minutes later to level the scores and AEK was not able to find a way back into the game.
The draw leaves AEK in sixth place on 25 points.
PAOK consolidates their third place on Saturday thanks to a 2-0 win over Levadiakos. The visitors opened the scoring through Vladan Ivic in the 11th minute and got their second in the 82nd minute through Brazilian defender Lino.
A six goal Thessaloniki derby between Aris and Iraklis sawthe in-form Yellows won 4-2 and are move into fourth on 28 points.
In other games on the weekend Asteras Tripolis beat Kavala 1-0, Panthrakikos lost 2-1 at home to PAS Yianninaand Ergotelis and Panionios, who are sitting comfortably in mid-table, fought out a 0-0 draw on Crete.