Panathinaikos suffers 2-1 home loss to Levadiakos

Panathinaikos suffers 2-1 home loss to Levadiakos

Published Jan. 6, 2013 4:13 a.m. ET

Stelios Vasileiou scored in the 38th and 76th minutes to lead Levadiakos to a 2-1 away victory over Panathinaikos at Athens' Olympic Stadium in the Greek league on Saturday.

Toche had given Panathinaikos the lead in the 12th.

Both of Vasileiou's goals came after defensive lapses by French central defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, who was playing his first game since September. In the first goal, his weak backward pass to goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis was intercepted by a grateful Vasileiou and, then, he tried to dribble past Noe Acosta just outside the area only to have the ball stolen from him and Vasileiou score off Acosta's cross.

Panathinaikos missed several chances, especially in the first half, but was thwarted by several spectacular saves made by goalkeeper Dimitris Kyriakidis.

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Former powerhouse Panathinaikos, last year's runner-up, is going through a financial and corporate management crisis and is having its worst season ever in the league. It lies ninth, 19 points behind league leader Olympiakos. The latter hosts Veria on Sunday.

Panathinaikos' troubles have split the club's fans into factions in support of one executive over another or over former cub owners, and have also concentrated the fans' ire on a handful of players. One of them is veteran defender Loukas Vyntra, whom Boumsong was called to replace amid fears the home fans would turn against him.

Boumsong, himself, is trying to get out of his contract, which expires in 2014. Panathinaikos also wants to get rid of Boumsong's two-year, ?1.4 million contract, but with the least financial damage. Club executives have privately said they can no longer afford to pay more than ?300,000 per year for any player's contract. Vyntra is said to be the only active player with a contract higher than that who is unwilling to renegotiate it downward. Argentine forward Sebastian Leto, who is also holding out, is out for the season with an injury.

Another former powerhouse, AEK Athens, in an even worse financial bind than Panathinaikos, remains next-to-last after losing 3-1 at third-place Asteras. Also, Giannena drew 1-1 at newcomer Platanias.

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