Aris arrest AEK charge

By Vassiliki Papantonopoulou

AEK Athens FC maintained their unbeaten start to the season, but saw their lead at the top of the Alpha Ethniki cut to a single point after they were held to a 1-1 draw by a spirited Aris Thessaloniki FC side, while Rivaldo finally opened his account for victorious Olympiacos CFP.

Sublime Soares
Aris came into their game second from bottom and with just two points to their name so far this season and took a shock early lead when Fernando Manuel Sanjurjo hit a powerful long-range drive in the ninth minute. Predictably, AEK controlled large swathes of the match but struggled to break down a resilient defensive unit until Alessandro Soares brought the sides level with a superb individual effort just after the hour, his sixth goal of the season.

Rivaldo off the mark
AEK were unable to add another though, and had to settle for a solitary point, allowing Panathinaikos FC and Olympiacos - the latter of whom AEK face next Sunday - to move within a point of top spot. Olympiacos warmed up for that game with an impressive 5-1 win at home against Aris' city rivals PAOK FC. Giovanni da Silva opened the scoring on seven minutes before Rivaldo scored his first and second competitive goals for the club.

Panathinaikos canter
The Brazilian playmaker then won a penalty that Leonidas Vokolos converted on 44 minutes to give Olympiacos an unassailable 4-0 lead. Dimitris Salpingidis did pull one back but the final word was Rivaldo's, as he and Giovanni exchanged a series of passes before supplying Nery Castillo, who restored the four-goal cushion. Panathinaikos won by the same margin against Panionios NFC with a Dimitris Papadopoulos double and goals from Michalis Konstantinou and Macej Bikofski securing a 4-0 victory.

Valuable points
Xanthi FC missed the chance to join Panathinaikos on 13 points after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Egaleo FC. Bottom side Ergotelis FC were forced to settle for the same scoreline in their game against Halkidona FC after conceding a last-gasp equaliser from substitute Patrick Ogunsoto. Above them, Ionikos FC earned three valuable points with a 1-0 win against Iraklis FC.

Gekas goals
Two goals in two minutes from Achilleas Angelopoulos and Theofanis Gekas midway through the first half put Kallithea FC en route to their second victory of the season against OFI Crete. The islanders did pull one back through Georgios Kazantzis with ten minutes remaining before Gekas restored Kallithea’s two-goal cushion with his second of the night in the final minute. Elsewhere, Apollon Kalamarias FC defeated Kerkira FC 3-0 to overtake their opponents and climb seventh.