The Greens have scored a vital win over their bitter rivals, Olympiacos, to keep their premiership hopes alive while AEK has pounced on PAOK’s defeat against Aris to claim first place once more.

Panathinaikos sealed a 1-3 away success against the Piraeus giants inside “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium on Monday morning (AEDT), giving themselves a fantastic win in the opening round of the Greek Super League’s play-offs.

Olympiacos was first to find the back of the net, with Portuguese winger Daniel Podence unleashing a wonderful strike that went into the top right corner off the underside of the crossbar (24’).

The “Trifylli” then brought it back level in the 41st minute after an initial attempt from winger Bernard was kept out via a sliding clearance at the goal line, with playmaker Anastasios Bakasetas meeting the ball and hitting into the goal.

Panathinaikos managed to grab the lead themselves just before half time when a deflected Bakasetas shot was saved by goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis only for striker Fotis Ioannidis to run the ball into the net off the rebound (45+4’).

Ioannidis then put the game to bed in the 70th minute as he met Bernard’s pass across goal and guided the ball into the net.

The victory puts the Greens just three points off of top spot while making the “red-whites” o five points behind as a result of the loss.

Aris secured an impressive 0-1 triumph over crosstown rivals PAOK inside an empty “Toumba” Stadium to knock the “black-whites” out of first place.

The visitors went in front 31 minutes into the contest after striker Loren Moron finished the ball into the bottom right corner, and they managed to protect their lead all the way until the final whistle.

The biggest beneficiary of this result was AEK as they reclaimed top position following their 0-4 away drubbing of Lamia.

Enosi opened the scoring on the stroke of half time as centre half Alexander Callens knocked the ball in from close range following a free kick shot from striker Ezequiel Ponce (45+2’).

Ponce doubled his side’s advantage with a finish in the 68th minute before a late brace from substitute forward Levi Garcia (88’, 90+3’) completed a perfect outing for AEK.

AEK now holds a two-point lead in first place though, with three clubs all within five points of Enosi, it is still a very narrow and competitive race for the championship.

Greek Super League Ladder
Championship Group
1-AEK: 62
2-PAOK: 60
3-Panathinaikos: 59
4-Olympiacos: 57
5-Aris: 45
6-Lamia: 34