Olympiakos thrashes Veria 6-0 in Greek league

ATHENS, Greece (AP) Costas Mitroglou scored his third hat-trick in seven league games Sunday and added an assist to lead defending champion Olympiakos to a 6-0 win over visiting Veria in the Greek League.

Joel Campbell added two goals and an assist, and Yiannis Maniatis scored Olympiakos' other goal.

The win kept Olympiakos in first place with 19 points, three more than PAOK, which beat Panathinaikos 2-1 Sunday. Ergotelis won 3-1 against Platanias on Saturday to sit third, three points behind PAOK.

Also Sunday, Xanthi came from two goals down to beat Apollon 3-2, Levadiakos beat Kalloni 1-0 and OFI snatched a 1-1 draw at Panthrakikos.

Coming off another hat trick in his team's away win over Anderlecht in the Champions League last Tuesday, Mitroglou opened the scoring from close range in the eighth minute and added another with a header in the 20th. Javier Saviola missed a penalty for Olympiakos in the 32nd.

Veria had several chances to cut into the lead, but collapsed in the final 30 minutes.

A quick exchange between Saviola, Mitroglou, David Fuster and Campbell ended with the latter scoring into an empty goal to make it 3-0 in the 62nd. Eight minutes later, Maniatis scored from Campbell's cross.

In the 81st, Mitroglou scored his last, and best, goal. Having received the ball outside the area with his back to the goal, he left two defenders behind with two swift dribbles and unleashed a shot into the top right corner. Two minutes later, he assisted in Campbell's second goal that closed the scoring.