Hillal Soudani

BELGRADE - Serbian football club Partizan Belgrade suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Swiss side Lugano in the first leg of the two teams' UEFA Europa League third qualifying round tie on Thursday evening.

Mattia Zanotti scored the winner for the visitors in the 70th minute.

Olympiakos has been crowned winter champion, i.e. will finish first at the halfway point of the regular season, after a very comfortable win over struggling Larissa, while PAOK defeated Panathinaikos in the weekend's most appetizing encounter.

Aris beat crosstown rival PAOK in a bitter derby on Sunday to stay two points behind leader Olympiakos that trounced table-propping Lamia.

The Thessaloniki derbies always tend to be hard-fought, but this season the Aris vs PAOK encounter at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium had some added interest from the fact the two teams are among the Super League table's top-three.

Olympiakos had to work hard to beat OFI at home and stay alone on top of the Super League on Saturday, three days before its Champions League clash with Bayern Munich in Piraeus.

Champion PAOK extended its perfect start in the Super League beating Atromitos in a thrilling game at Peristeri, but so did challenger Olympiakos and surprise package Xanthi, all making it three out of three.