Olympiakos win again as Panathinaikos salvage a point

ATHENS, Oct 1 (Reuters) Olympiakos Piraeus continued their steamrolling start to the season, securing their sixth successive win with a 1-0 victory at Iraklis.

The result means that after six rounds of the Super League, Olympiakos, who have won nine of the last 10 championships, have a maximum 18 points and a five-point lead over second-placed Panathinaikos who came from 3-0 down to secure a point at OFI.

Larisa, 1-0 winners over Xanthi, lie third one point further back with 12 points.

Olympiakos, held to a 2-2 draw by Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League in midweek, went into the game without the injured Rivaldo but managed to take the lead in the 25th minute through Milos Maric.

The home team's chances of equalising were struck a blow in the 64th minute when defender Grigorios Papazacharias was shown a straight card and Olympiakos held on for the points.

It capped a bad week for Iraklis, who lost 2-0 at home to Wisla Krakow in midweek to miss out on a UEFA Cup group place and now find themselves with just two points and sharing bottom spot with Xanthi.

Panathinaikos, meanwhile, had a torrid evening in Crete as they found themselves trailing 2-0 at halftime. Things got worse when Minas Pitsos made it 3-0 in the 58th minute.

The Athens team, however, hit back strongly thanks to their Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz who scored twice in four minutes to make it 3-2 with 22 minutes remaining.

Nine minutes from time Dimitris Salpigidis levelled the scores with his fifth goal of the season.

AEK Athens, meanwhile, picked up just their second win of the season when they came back from 1-0 down to beat Ergotelis 3-1 yesterday.

AEK now have nine points and trail the leaders by a further nine.

REUTERS SBA PM0232