SL2 22/23: Athens Kallithea 2-0 Egaleo

Despite a comfortable 2-0 victory over Egaleo in the penultimate week of the Super League 2 season, AKFC were mathematically resigned to a second-place league finish on Sunday afternoon when rivals Kifisia struck an 88th minute equalizer from the penalty spot to take a point from Kalamata and clinch promotion to Super League 1. AKFC and Kifisia could finish tied for first place in the final week of the season, but Kifisia hold the tiebreaker.

With the victory, AKFC completed an undefeated season at Grigoris Lamprakis Stadium, with 13 wins and one draw in 14 home matches.

AKFC started aggressively and produced a flurry of early chances, with Orestis Tsintonis, Panagiotis Kynigopoulos, Giannis Loukinas, and Omar Santana all going close to scoring, before Loukinas finally broke the deadlock in the 36th minute, getting on the end of Konstantinos Bouloulis’ near-post cross with a sliding finish.

Just two minutes later, Loukinas struck again. It came on another cross from the right wing, this time curled high into the area by Abdul Rahman Weiss, and Loukinas perfectly timed his jump and headed beautifully into the top corner.

The brace took Loukinas’ tally to 18 goals on the season, just one shy of Apollon Smyrnis striker Panagiotis Moraitis in the race for top scorer in the league.

AKFC would cruise through the second half, with 24-year-old ‘keeper Athanasios Pantos recording a clean sheet in his first league start of the season.

In the season finale, AKFC will play away to PAO Rouf on Sunday 18 June.

Athens Kallithea (4-3-2-1): Pantos, Weiss, Vlachos, Evangelou, Kainourgios (72’ Pereyra), Bouloulis, Matilla, Santana, Kynigopoulos, Tsintonis (62’ Malçi), Loukinas