PAOK comes from behind to keep two-point lead

By George Georgakopoulos

PAOK retained its two-point lead over Olympiakos at the top of the Super League ahead of the two teams’ first clash this season on Wednesday, although Panthrakikos gave the Thessaloniki team a real scare on Sunday.

PAOK had to come from 2-1 down at its home stadium of Toumba to win 3-2, through goals by Dimitris Salpingidis, Dimitris Papadopoulos and Facundo Pereyra, though Panthrakikos had led via Nicolas Diguiny and Nikos Tsoumanis up to the hour mark.

Olympiakos shook off its 4-0 loss at Atletico Madrid in midweek for the Champions League to beat Kerkyra by the same score on Corfu on Sunday and prepare for the big game against PAOK in Piraeus. The Reds had David Fuster, Omar Elabdellaoui and Chori Dominguez (twice) on the scoresheet.

Kalloni Lesvou shared a goalless draw with Platanias Hanion at home on Saturday, so Panathinaikos has joined it on the third spot of the table through its 2-1 home win over Veria. Danijel Pranjic and Marcus Berg were on target for the Greens before Nikos Kaltsas pulled one back for 10-man Veria.

Asteras Tripolis produced a spectacular second half display to thrash Ergotelis 4-1 on Crete, and PAS Giannina climbed to eighth through a convincing 3-0 defeat of visiting OFI Crete.

In other games of the 12th round, Levadiakos and Panetolikos drew 0-0, Panionios downed Niki Volou 2-1 and Atromitos saw off Xanthi 2-0.

The league continues on Wednesday and Thursday with the sixth round of games that was postponed in October.