Judging by how the situation unfolded, the 3rd round of the playoffs seemed to be one of the most responsible on the way of contenders for the title to final dominance, which in the end was confirmed in practice, as four contenders turned into three. Panathinaikos And AEK they managed to stay together at the top of the standings, winning from it Ari and his Hair respectively and in fact with the same score 1-0, and now they are only followed by Olympic who in a big derby defeated him 3-1 with a draft PAOKlost in the fight not only for the title, but also for the second place leading to the Champions League qualification.

Jersey was enough

Olympiacos is proving too strong to die and give up for the title this year. “Red-Whites”, although due to a 2-2 shock with Aris, Mitchell’s resignation, but also because they lost 1-0 to PAOK at half-time, brought ups and downs, they reached 3-1 against Dikefalos and were three points behind the top two teams. In fact, with this victory, Olympiacos managed to derail the opponent: PAOK is now nine points behind the leaders in the race, Panathinaikos and AEK, and six behind the Red-Whites, counting two defeats in a row in the playoffs.

Olympiacos may not have many wins this year in the Big Four derby but the two they have are impressive as after a 3-1 win in Agia Sofia against AEK on the last match day of the regular season championship, it also came 3-1 over PAOK.

In the first part, the squad, in which Olympiacos assistant coach José Anigo made his debut on the bench, gave his team an attacking breath, but at the same time left many gaps. Thus, despite the pressure of the “red-whites” in the first minutes, having missed important moments mainly from Bakabu, it was PAOK who opened the scoring with Bratton Thomas in the 22nd minute, “freezing” Karaiskakis.

But the continuation belonged exclusively to Olympiacos, who for most of the match showed one of their best performances this year. Bacabu equalized in the 59th minute with a stunning goal, Masouras in his first contact with the ball made it 2-1 in the 78th minute, taking advantage of an error by Coulierakis, who in his attempt to chase the ball laid for him. , and the icing on the cake was El Arabi from a penalty kick in the 87th minute.

This victory came at the most cleansing moment for Olympiacos as on Sunday it goes to Leoforos and PAOK play Volos at Toumba.

Olympic (Jose Añigo): Paschalakis, Reabchuk, Ba, Sokratis (Lt. Pape Cisse, 57), Rodini, Embila, Inbom Huang, Fortounis (Brusai, 77), Valbuena (James, 60), Biel (Masouras, 77) and Bacabu. (77′ Arabi).

PAOK (Razvan Lucescu): Kotarski, Sastre, Ingason, Coulierakis, Rafa Soares, Douglas Augusto, Filipe Soares (Schwab 82), A. Zivkovic, Taison (Kadouri 68), Constantelias (Narei 68) and Brandon Thomas (69) . Oliveira).

Sporard’s response

For Panathinaikos, the match against Ari at Vikelidis looked like the final, as last Sunday it started with two white draws with AEK at Agia Sophia and Volos at Leoforos. So the victory was a one-way street, from the moment he went out to play with the “yellows” he already knew that the Union was walking away victorious from “Pantessalico”. Opposite him was a team that came back a few days ago with a draw from Karaiskakis, where, although they lost 2-0 to Olympiakos, they managed to get away with a 2-2 draw, and at the same time they played for their own team. survival as he chases after 5th place and a trip to Europe to save a year in which the goals he set were lost early on.

Aris started stronger and was better in the first half, but failed to capitalize on the opportunities he created. In the second half, the Greens took control of the game, showed the character that a team chasing the championship should have, and in the 70th minute they reached their cherished goal with Sporar, with whom they celebrated their first victory in the playoffs.

For the Slovene, this goal is tantamount to expiation. The penalty he missed a few days ago in the match with Volos showed that he was chasing him like a hedgehog in this match as well, as in the 63rd minute he could not beat Siabani from an advantageous position with the nightmare of another lost a three-pointer due to returning to his mind . But in the end, the Slovenian managed to score a goal, albeit with … a strange header, and this goal was perhaps the most important and decisive of the eight previous ones that he has scored so far. In doing so, he also gave his answer to all those who claim that he did not offer, based on his value and his contract, which, together with Bernard’s contract, is one of the highest in the “green” dressing room.

Mars (Apostolos Terzis): Siabanis, Odubazzo, Fabiano, Brambets, Mazikou (Pearsman, 86), Etembo (Grey, 79), Darinda, Palma (Camazzo, 70), Mateo Garcia (Dukure, 46), Iturbe (Christodoulopoulos, 70) ., arch.

Panathinaikos (Ivan Jovanovic): Lodingin, Sanchez, Senckefeld, Sarlia, Juancar, Courbelis, Ruben, Serine (Magnusson, 90’+2), Palacios (Bernard, 70), Ioannidis (Sporar, 59), Kleinheisler (Mancini, 59).

One goal was enough

The goal and the celebration with Orbelin Pineda’s famous colotumba was the only noteworthy moment at Panthessalico. AEK cashed in on Sunday’s very big win at Toumba with an easy pass from Volos where they beat the local side 1-0 and stayed on top with Panathinaikos, now waiting for Sunday at home Ari with a third goal in a row. win on the way to the title.

On the other hand, Volos remained in last place out of the top six and was one point behind Aris in the fight for the European ticket.

The decisive goal was scored in the 9th minute, when Eliasson counterattacked, Sergio Araujo headed for Levi Garcia, who from the height of the penalty shot into Pineda’s goal.

AEK missed a huge chance for a second goal in the 69th minute when Levia intercepted the ball due to an error by Antonio Luna, also passing to Kleiman, but missed with a right from the side position.

MARBLE (Kostas Bratsos): Kleiman, Alho, Cielis, Eskoval, Luna, Tsokanis (Metaxas, 89), Katse (Kartalis, 80), Gakhi, Tahatos (Barrientos, 46), Deletich (Metkida, 88), Ozhegovich (Pires, 42) ) ).

AEK (Matías Almeida): Athanasiadis, Mohammadi, Rota, Vida, Cavellas, Johnson, Pineda (Gacinovich 74), Mandalos (Galanopoulos 84), Levia (Zuber 75), Araujo (Fernandes 84), Eliasson (90+) . 3′ Szymanski).

Rating: Panathinaikos 66, AEK 66, Olympiacos 63, PAOK 57, Aris 41, Volos 40.

Next game day (9/4): AEK – Aris, PAOK – Volos, Panathinaikos – Olympiakos.