Panathinaikos push continues
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Article summary
Hellenic National League leaders Panathinaikos FC picked up their eleventh consecutive win on Sunday.
Article body
Exquisite lob
Ezequiel González's exquisite 55th-minute lob opened the scoring, Dimitris Papadopoulos polished off a clever throughball from Jan Michaelsen for the second in the 90th minute, and in added time provider turned goalscorer to make it 3-0. The visiting side's plight was not helped by the first-half dismissal of Panagiotis Pappas.
Vallas winner
Second-placed Olympiacos CFP, however, remained in close contention, defeating Ionikos FC 2-1 away from home. The reigning champions went ahead in the 36th minute thanks to a Predrag Djordjevic penalty and defender Spyros Vallas secured the win late on after Oliver Macor had levelled.
PAOK thriller
Third-placed FC PAOK prevailed 3-2 in a thriller against AEK Athens FC when two goals from Giasemakis Giasemi and a Dimitris Salpingidis penalty cancelled out Nikos Lyberopoulos' double. Michalis Kapsis was sent off for the visitors.
Aris annihilated
Panionios NFC had to wait until the 87th minute to break the deadlock against Egaleo FC but scored twice in as many minutes to take all three points, while Iraklis FC strolled past nine-man FC Aris Thessaloniki 6-0 with Kennedy Bakircioglü and Nikos Machlas both scoring twice.
Other games
In other games, Paniliakos FC edged out Xanthi FC 1-0 to collect their first win of the year while Proodeftiki FC saw off OFI Crete FC 2-0 and basement rivals Akratitos FC and Kallithea FC fought out a scoreless draw.
