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Lymberopoulos gives PAO win over PAOK

Thanks to a goal by Nikos Lymberopoulos in the 52’ minute, Panathinaikos beat PAOK and stayed alone at the top of the standings with a difference of two points from Olympiakos, and continues to dream of a championship.

The game started with Panathinaikos coming out strong and missing several key chances. In the 6th minute, Basinas’ free kick went just high and two minutes later Fyssas missed from two meters away. The tall defender can be excused because the ball was deflected to him and he had a split second to react to the error made by the PAOK defense.

Both teams would try to build up an attack from the sides and they both negated each other out. Kolkka and Fyssas would try to create from the left for Panathinaikos and Georgiadis and Egomitis would try to create for PAOK.

As time passed, it looked like Panathinaikos would score first. They had a very good chance when Kolkka’s shot bounced off a PAOK defender after beating the keeper. They also had a chance with Lymberopoulos when he shot wide in the 30th minute. On the other hand PAOK could not do anything worth mentioning. The stats said it all in that department. Panathinaikos had 10 shots on goal and PAOK had only one in the first half. The first half ended on that note and both teams went into the locker room in a 0-0 draw.

The second half started in the best way for the greens. Fyssas found Lymberopoulos inside the box who slipped and at the same time got rid of his defender and shot a rocket soon as he got up to open up the score in the 52’ minute. PAOK tried to respond and played much more aggressive following the goal but could not create any good chances.

The best chance of the game for PAOK came in the 79’ minute when Okkas took a strong shot on goal which beat Nikopolidis but Fyssas cleared off the line with a header which went to another PAOK player whose shot was deflected by Seitaridis and went out for a corner. Nothing changed in the last 10 minutes and the 1-0 stood. Panathinaikos went ahead of PAOK by 5 points in the standings and stayed two points clear of Olympiakos.

Markarian said after the game, "We won a very difficult match. PAOK is a very good team. The pitch was heavy from the constant rain. We tried hard to get the win. We could have decided the game from the first half, but our opponents played good defense and surpassed their difficulties." He added, "We finished a very difficult and important month for us. We played two important derbies. Correct me if I'm wrong but we won all the points we could for this month. The team is playing much more freely. We are going into a very difficult month ahead with a difficult task. We'll do our best. We haven't won anything yet. We have to work hard with discipline and not give a chance to our opponents. We are not the favorites. We are in first today. Tomorrow I don't know. We will try to stay in first until the end."

Panathinaikos: Nikopolidis, Fyssas, Seitaridis, Kyrgiakos, Henriksen, Basinas, Michaelsen, Kolkka (65’ Konstantinidis), Karagounis (79’ Goumas), Lymberopoulos, Konstantinou (72’ Warzycha).

January 26, 2003