Pressure tells on Olympiacos

By Vassiliki Papantonopoulou

Victories for Panathinaikos FC and AEK Athens FC closed the gap on Greek leaders Olympiacos PFC, who were on the wrong end of the result of the day as newly-promoted Ergotelis FC won 2-1.

Added-time winner
Ismael Addo gave Ergotelis the lead on three minutes only for Rivaldo to level the scores from the penalty spot 18 minutes later. They then nearly took the lead when Georgios Anatolakis hit a post in the 50th minute, and when Ergotelis’ Manolis Soutzis was dismissed for a second-bookable offence with 26 minutes left Olympiacos held the advantage. Yet, despite their numeric inferiority, Egotelis scored an added-time winner thanks to Patrick Ogunsoto’s volley.

Gap narrows
That defeat allowed Panathinaikos move within two points after a hard-fought victory at Egaleo FC. New signing and league top goalscorer Theofanis Gekas hit the deciding goal in the 29th minute. AEK reduced their distance from Olympicos to three points after a home win against Iraklis FC. The visitors took the lead in the 61st minute with a close-range shot by Idrit Fortusi, but captain Konstantinos Katsouranis turned the game in AEK’s favour with two headed goals in the 71st and 78th minutes.

Kalamarias collapse
Xanthi FC continued their impressive run with a 4-1 victory against Apollon Kalamarias FC. Xanthi went ahead on 15 minutes with a Georgios Koussas own goal, and a minute later they doubled their lead through Cleber Souza da Cruz. Karim Mouzaoui pulled one back for Kalamarias, but second-half goals from Stavros Lambriakos and Alexandros Garpozis sealed the win for Xanthi.

Ten-man triumph
That defeat for Kalamarias saw bottom-side Kerkira FC go level on 15 points with them, after they came back from two goals down to draw against Ionikos FC, despite having Ioannis Sfakianakis dismissed on 47 minutes. Ionikos led through Samir Buganem’s own goal and Milton Coimbra’s volley, but were pegged back when Ederson Fofonka scored on 69 minutes and Andrea Niniadis converted a last-minute penalty.

First win
Kerkira remain bottom on goal-difference but are just four points behind the next four teams - Aris Thessaloniki FC, who lost 1-0 to Halkidona FC, Ionikos and Ergotelis. In other results, PAOK Thessaloniki FC new coach Nikolaos Karageorgiou’s first game in charge ended with a 3-1 win over Kallithea FC, while Panionios FC came back from a goal down to defeat OFI Crete FC 2-1.