The two “eternal enemies” of Greek football are set for a blockbuster fixture to start the play-offs and the stakes are extremely high for each side as a win could commence a surge towards the top while a loss could prove fatal to their title ambitions.

Olympiacos hosts Panathinaikos at “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium on Monday morning (AEDT) in the first round of the Greek Super League’s play-offs, with victory being of the utmost importance for each club’s premiership dreams.

The match is definitely in the balance with each side having their own respective advantages and disadvantages, with the Piraeus giants having only three days to recover from their midweek European game in preparation for this contest.

The “Trifylli”, on the other hand, will have to navigate an anticipated hostile crowd to beat their rivals, who are coming into the clash on a five-match winning streak in the league.

The Greens will, however, take confidence in being the last team to defeat the “red-whites” in the competition, and they will need to muster the same strength from that last performance to have any chance of winning again this time.

The worst-case scenario for both Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is they could find themselves six and seven points off top spot respectively, increasing the stakes even further for this enormous rivalry match.

They are not the only enemies going head-to-head in this round as PAOK is preparing to face crosstown rivals Aris at “Toumba” Stadium.

The Double-headed eagle of the North clinched first position in the last round of the regular season, and they will have no interest in relinquishing it so soon, meaning the club will not be satisfied with anything less than a victory.

Aris comes into this match in somewhat high spirits after booking their spot in the Greek Cup Final for the first time since the 2009/10 season, though it came following a 0-0 draw on Thursday morning against Panetolikos (winning the tie 1-0 on aggregate).

PAOK is also heading into this meeting after playing midweek, their match being on Friday morning against Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia on Friday morning.

As such, the “black-whites” could find themselves the more fatigued side of the two but the derby fixture promises to be equally thrilling and massive as the Olympiacos-Panathinaikos clash.

AEK kicks off their play-offs campaign with a match against Lamia at “Athanasios Diakos” ground.

Enosi finds itself in an interesting position wherein they could feasibly finish the round on top if results go in their favour, though they will first need to down the Fthiotida side.

Lamia is in the unique position of being able to cause immense chaos for the clubs fighting battling it out for the league championship, with this match being their first of many opportunities to seriously cause a damaging blow.

Their performances against the top sides this year have been impressive for a club of their stature, having earned wins over Olympiacos and Aris as well as grabbing an away draw against Panathinaikos.

This could give them confidence heading into these huge matches as the club looks to leave a mark in its first-ever play-offs campaign.

Play-offs Rd 1 fixtures (AEDT)

Lamia-AEK: 02.00, Mon 11 Mar

Olympiacos-Panathinaikos: 05.30, Mon 11 Mar

PAOK-Aris: 06.00, Mon 11 Mar