Sokratis Papastathopoulos

AEK beat PAOK away and has joined Panathinaikos at the top of the Super League table, as the Greens stumbled at home against Volos.

A late Sergio Araujo strike did justice at Toumba on Sunday, as AEK deservedly defeated PAOK 1-0, also having a goal unfairly disallowed.

Greece and former Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos has signed for Greek champion Olympiakos in a deal worth a reported 1.2 million euros ($1.46 million).

The contract the 32-year-old Papastathopoulos had at Arsenal was canceled by mutual consent last week after he made 69 appearances at the London club.

Olympiakos is now 11 points clear at the top of the Super League table, after narrowly beating Atromitos away while challengers PAOK and AEK canceled each other out.

A Bruma goal sufficed for Olympiakos to win 1-0 at Atromitos on Sunday and climb to 48 points from 18 matches. The Reds are also reportedly close to signing Arsenal central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Greece paid for two lapses of defensive concentration in the second half to go down 2-0 to Italy in Rome, after a decent performance that could have merited a better result in this Euro 2020 qualifier on Saturday.

The drabbing by Italy last Saturday and above all Tuesday's 3-2 home loss to Armenia has split the Greece camp into two, as the coaching setup refuses to see reality and targeted captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos who stated the obvious, that the Euro 2020 campaign is all but over and extensive changes are needed in the national team.

A rather experimental Greece team lost 2-1 to Turkey on Thursday at a friendly game in Antalya, showing manager Angelos Anastasiadis has plenty of work to do to gear the national team up for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Italy and Armenia at home.

Greece will miss talismanic striker Costas Mitroglou in its key clash with Bosnia on Tuesday due to his injury in the game at Liechtenstein, but at least it will welcome back captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Mitroglou picked up a leg injury that is ruling him out of the game at Zenica, so coach Angelos Anastasiadis has called up Panionios striker Fiorin Durmishaj to replace him.

Greece suffered a 1-0 friendly loss to Switzerland on Friday in its first match for 2018, going down at the Olympic Stadium of Athens to a team that will feature in this summer's World Cup.

Greece manager Michael Skibbe is changing more than half of his starting line-up for the return leg of the World Cup play-off, according to the official line-ups.

Greece central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos remains doubtful for the national team's do-or-die play-offs with Croatia after the rather superficial injury that forced him out of last Saturday's Borussia Dortmund game. In view of this and the ban on Costas Manolas, coach Michael Skibbe has called up two more central defenders.