AEK pounce as leaders wobble

By Vassiliki Papantonopoulou

A hard-fought 1-0 win against Egaleo FC enabled AEK Athens FC to move alongside rivals Panathinaikos FC after the reigning Greek champions were held to a draw.

Hiotis heroics
Konstantinos Katsouranis' close-range header on 50 minutes, following good work from Julio Cesar, proved enough to see off the challenge of Egaleo at the Nikos Goumas stadium. But AEK were also indebted to their goalkeeper, Dionissis Chiotis, who pulled off a number of fine stops to deny Ioannis Chloros and Dimosthenis Manousakis as Egaleo threatened towards the end.

Ionikos resilience
AEK did hold on, however, and the result lifted them back to the summit after Panathinaikos came up against similar goalkeeping resilience at 13th-placed Ionikos FC. Arian Beqaj was in superlative form as the home side repelled wave after wave of attacks, which grew in intensity following Giorgos Voureksakis' 78th-minute sending off. But the league's top scorers could not press home their numerical advantage.

Olympiacos held
Goalkeeping heroics were very much the order of the day in Greece and it was no different at Kallithea FC where Panagiotis Bartzokas saved a 14th-minute Predrag Djordjevic penalty to deny third-placed Olympiacos CFP. A Michalis Tzorbatzakis own goal did put the visitors ahead on 40 minutes but the lead lasted less than 15 minutes, as Theofanis Gekas picked himself up to convert another spot-kick. Despite Tzorbatzakis' dismissal five minutes from time, Nery Castillo still had the chance to steal the win in added time, but the Uruguayan missed with the goal gaping.

Xanthi penalised
Fourth-placed Xanthi FC failed to capitalise on the slip, however, as they lost 2-1 at Aris Thessaloniki FC, with all three goals coming from the penalty spot. Ioannis Lazanas gave the home side the lead five minutes before the interval and then made it 2-0 midway through the second-half. Luciano de Souza scored Xanthi's consolation a minute from time.

PAOK win
Aris' city rivals PAOK FC also fared well as they defeated Kerkira 1-0 to rise to fifth. Dimitris Salpigidis scored the only goal of the game with a quarter of an hour remaining, capitalising on some disorganised defending. Halkidona FC's game against Panionios FC, as well as OFI Crete FC and Apollon Kalamarias FC's encounter, both ended goalless. Meanwhile, Joël Epalle scored on his first start to seal a 2-0 victory for Iraklis FC against Ergotelis FC.