Derby draw keeps AEK in top spot
Sunday 13 January 2008
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Olympiacos' Christos Patsatzoglou (right) and Loukas Vintra of Panathinaikos compete for the ball (©Getty Images)
An entertaining 1-1 draw between Olympiacos CFP and Panathinaikos FC on Sunday left AEK Athens FC top of the Greek Super League following their defeat of GAS Veria the previous day.
First-half goals
Panathinaikos took the lead at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium after a quarter of an hour when Dimitrios Salpingidis found Dame N'Doye who scored with a thunderous strike from just inside the box. The goal sparked Olympiacos into action and they nearly equalised in the 39th minute when Lomana LuaLua hit the post. They finally drew level on the stroke of half-time when Paraskevas Antzas scored from close range.
Penalty miss
Panathinaikos hit the woodwork themselves after 64 minutes through Andreas Ivanschitz and were then awarded a penalty four minutes later after Antzas handled in the box. The away side could not capitalise, though, as Antonios Nikopolidis saved substitute Dimitrios Papadopoulos's spot-kick. Darko Kovačević nearly won the game late on for Olympiacos but failed to maintain his record of scoring in every home league match this term.
AEK top
The result, coming in the first round of fixtures in the second half of the season, means AEK lead the standings on 36 points with Olympiacos and Panathinaikos a further one and two points back respectively. In the day's other games, fourth-placed Asteras Tripolis FC needed an 88th-minute goal to gain a point at Larissa FC and there were wins for Levadiakos FC, Skoda Xanthi FC and bottom side Ergotelis FC.
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