AEK went four
points clear on top of the Super League thanks to a 2-1 home win over
PAS Yiannina on Saturday, while PAOK scored a much-needed 3-1 victory
over Atromitos at home.
With
the Olympic Stadium unusually full of AEK fans, who felt their team is
now a genuine title contender, the Athens club managed to overcome the
fact it was missing up to nine top-choice players.
AEK
led after 15 minutes through Jose Carlos and were lucky to double their
lead seven minutes into the second half via an own goal by PAS’s Tasos
Pantos.
In
their first match with coach Angelos Anastasiadis on its bench, PAS cut
the deficit in half with a tap-in from close range by Ilias Kotsios,
but this was not enough for the visitors to get anything out of this
game.
AEK
now have 28 points from 13 games to go four points ahead of Olympiakos,
who have played 11 games and five ahead of Panathinaikos, who have
three games in hand on AEK.
PAOK
returned to victories with an emphatic performance against Atromitos,
whom they approached to just one point at the table. Atromitos, in
fourth, have got a game in hand, though.
The
Thessaloniki giants had Lino, Adelino Vieirinha and Stefanos
Athanasiadis to thank for their goals, while Brito scored for Atromitos.
In
the day’s other game Levadiakos snatched a point at Xanthi putting an
end to the series of four consecutive victories by the Thrace side.
Stelios
Vassiliou gave the lead to Levadiakos but Xanthi equalised courtesy of
Marko Markovski for a 1-1 final score. Xanthi have now dropped to sixth,
one point behind PAOK.
