Panathinaikos and Olympiakos had to work hard to get the wins they thought would have been easy, at the sixth round of group games in the Euroleague, while Maroussi succumbed to the might of CSKA Moscow.

On Wednesday Olympiakos were trailing for virtually the whole of the match at Orleans, with the French side, who are debutants in the competition, playing a spirited game and threatening Olympiakos with an upset.

Yet after Orleans’ 70-58 lead early in the fourth period, Olympiakos were fortunate to see their Lithuanian scorer take over and register 19 points in six and a half minutes to gift the Reds an 88-84 victory, their fourth in six matches.

In Moscow Maroussi were always the outsiders against last season’s finalists CSKA and their 78-65 defeat was hardly a surprise.

This was the fifth loss for Maroussi in six games in the group stage.

Then on Thursday Panathinaikos got the better of visiting Armani Jeans Milano with a 80-68 victory, although the Italians had come within six points a few minutes before the end.

This was also the first match for Sarunas Jasikevicius after a long absence due to injury.

Panathinaikos remain joint top of the table with five wins, along with Real Madrid.