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Greek roundup Olympiakos retains lead with 2-0 win over Apollon
Posted: Sunday February 20, 2000 01:57 PM
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Alecos Alexandris scored one goal and Stelios Giannacopoulos added another as Olympiakos Piraeus beat lowly Apollon Athens 2-0 Sunday to retain the lead in the Greek first division soccer league. After 20 rounds, Olympiakos is in first place with 54 points, a point ahead arch-rival Panathinaikos Athens, which posted its 17th victory after beating PAOK 3-1 in Thessaloniki. In other games Sunday, OFI played to a surprise 2-2 draw against Panachaiki at home, Ionikos beat Panionios 2-0 and AEK beat Ethnikos Asteras 2-1, while Aris defeated Prodeftiki by the same score. Olympiakos dominated play throughout the match, but it took its players 75 minutes to find the goal as Alexandris put his team ahead with a header off a pass from Dimitris Mavrogennidis. Apollon, struggling with a 3-5-12 record, played defensively and failed to threaten the host's keeper, Kyriacos Tohouroglou. Olympiakos nearly scored in the opening minute with a misplaced shot by Lambros Houtos, making his debut with the Piraeus squad after his transfer from Italy's Roma in January. His volley went wide with Polish goalie Jozef Wandzik out of position. Alexandris also sent the ball wide in the 39th, and Serbian midfielder Predrag Djordjevic again in the 66th. Five minutes before the end of the game, Giannacopoulos, who replaced Andreas Niniadis in the 70th, made the final 2-0 off a pass from Serbian-born striker Sinisa Gogic. In a game billed as the round's derby, Panathinaikos easily defeated PAOK, turning the match into a one-sided event. The Athens club exploited PAOK's weak defense and took the lead with a penalty kick converted by Angelos Bassinas in the 30th. Referee Giorgos Borovilos awarded the penalty when PAOK's Polish keeper Gregor Semoutourski brought down Giorgos Nassiopoulos in his area. Three minutes later, Giorgos Karagounis pierced the PAOK defense and slotted the ball past Semoutourski to stretch the score to 2-0. Roared on by a sellout crowd of 35,000, PAOK became more aggressive after the rest period. But Panathinaikos struck again with veteran Polish striker Krzysztof Warzycha off a perfect pass from Nikos Lymberopoulos in the 69th. The hosts narrowed the gap with a free kick from 30 meters [32 yards] by Serbian midfielder Vintak Bradic in the 73rd. In the last 15 minutes, PAOK besieged the Panathinaikos area in a desperate effort to score but the visitors' fended off the attacks.
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