Olympiakos had to work hard to beat OFI at home and stay alone on top of the Super League on Saturday, just days before its Champions League clash with Bayern Munich in Piraeus.
The Reds won 2-1 thanks to a brace by Hillal Soudani, who scored before and after Adil Nabi’s equalizer for OFI.
The Piraeus team has 19 points, with champion PAOK on 17. Next Sunday Olympiakos clashes with crosstown rival AEK.
PAOK scored three times in the first 11 minutes of its home game with Lamia and then took it easy, as the goals by Josip Misic, Dimitris Limnios and Karol Swiderski sufficed for the 3-0 win that brought PAOK up to the second spot.
That was also due to the 1-0 loss of Xanthi at home to Aris on the debut of German manager Michael Oenning on the Thessaloniki team’s bench. Bruno Gama scored for the visitors who left Xanthi in third with 15 points. Aris has climbed to eighth.
AEK ground out a 3-2 home win over 10-man Volos and has risen to fourth, five points off the pace. It had Marko Livaja and Petros Mantalos (twice) on target, after Joaquin Torres had given Volos a 1-0 lead and before Stergios Dimopoulos reduced the arrears for the visitors at the Rizoupoli Stadium.
Two days after agreeing to a new, three-year contract with Panathinaikos, Tasos Hatziyiovanis scored a spectacular goal at Peristeri to give the Greens a 1-0 win at Atromitos. This result has taken Panathinaikos up to ninth.
Panetolikos remains without a win as a late Vangelis Moras header denied the host at Agrinio and gave Larissa a 2-2 draw on the road, while Asteras Tripolis rose to 11th downing bottom team Panionios 1-0 away.