Olympiacos cruise past Panathinaikos

SUPER LEAGUE PLAYOFFS - MATCHDAY 3

Olympiacos took another important step towards their 45th Super League title on Sunday after dispatching fierce rivals Panathinaikos 3-0 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in the derby of the eternal enemies in Piraeus.

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Pedro Martins’ men were resounding winners thanks to goals from Guilherme, Youssef El Arabi and Cafu, with Panathinaikos unable to respond on a tough night for the Greens in Faliro.

The result means Olympiacos are now 19 points clear of second-placed PAOK with seven matches to go.

THE MATCH

Sunday’s late game pitted the so-called ‘eternal enemies’ against each other in Piraeus with Olympiacos, who defeated Aris last weekend, looking to continue their unbeaten season and edge towards the title.

Panathinaikos arrived in Faliro on the back of a goalless draw with PAOK and in need of a positive result to continue to press for a higher table position.

And it was the Greens who carved out the first real opening in the match in only the second minute. But, unfortunately for the visitors, captain Dimitris Kourbelis headed wide of the target from a corner when let completely unmarked.

Panathinaikos were made to pay dearly for that miss just three minutes later when Guilherme put the home side in front. Max Lovera won possession and offloaded to the Brazilian, who beat Socratis Dioudis with a powerful shot.

Panathinaikos sought to respond and they passed up a great chance to level matters in the 18th minute when Tasos Chatzigiovanis had an effort cleared off the line by Olympiacos defender Ousseynou Ba.

Just three minutes later and the hosts were 2-0 up when El Arabi finished off a superb passing move involving Kostas Fortounis, Omar and Andreas Bouchalakis.

It seemed that there was no way back for Panathinaikos at that point, and so it proved as a scrappy second half saw Panathinaikos struggle to create opportunities while Olympiacos lay in wait to pounce on the break.

The home side got their third goal in the first minute of added time when Cafu curled a brilliant shot past Dioudis to cap a convincing derby win for the Thrylos.

STARTING LINEUPS

Olympiacos: 1 Sa (Gk), 21 Tsimikas, 24 Ba, 3 Semedo, 14 Elabdellaoui, 5 Bouhalakis, 4 Camara, 8 Guilherme, 7 Fortounis, 11 El-Arabi, 22 Lovera

Panathinaikos: 1 Dioudis (Gk), 12 Chatzitheodoridis, 5 Schenkeveld, 21 Kourbelis, 4 Kolovetsios, 26 Tuhami, 8 Donis, 20 Ayoub, 11 Chatzigiovanis, 9  Macheda, 10 Zahid

HIGHLIGHTS

by Graham Wood

Image Source: sport-fm.gr

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