Soccer-Panathinaikos thwarted by Panionios keeper Dioudis

By Graham Wood ATHENS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Panathinaikos were held to a 0-0 draw by Panionios thanks to the heroics of the visitors' Greece under-21 keeper Sokratis Dioudis on Sunday as they slipped even further adrift of runaway league leaders Olympiakos Piraeus. Andrea Stramaccioni's team simply could not find a way past the brilliant 22-year-old stopper, who made 11 saves in a match dominated by the home side at the Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium. Michael Essien, Mehdi Abeid, Viktor Klonaridis and Giorgos Koutroubis missed clear chances for the Greens, who were playing their fourth and final match behind closed doors as part of the punishment for crowd violence in the Athens derby last November. The result saw Panathinaikos slip from second to fourth, 19 points behind Olympiakos, who have 51 and are in action in Crete on Monday against Platanias. Marco Silva's Olympiakos side have won their previous 17 league matches, setting a club record last week. Gus Poyet's impressive AEK Athens continued their encouraging form with a 2-0 win at PAS Giannina, which moved them up to second spot with 36 points from 18 matches. AEK's Venezuelan forward Ronald Vargas opened the scoring after six minutes, before AEK goalkeeper Yiannis Anestis saved Stavros Tsoukalas' penalty six minutes before halftime. That gave the visitors to platform to secure the win, with Portuguese midfielder Helder Barbosa adding a second to kill off the game in the 59th minute. PAOK Salonica moved into third -- four points behind AEK -- courtesy of a 2-1 home win over Veria with goals from strikers Dimitar Berbatov, with a penalty, and Stefanos Athanasiadis. (Editing by Ken Ferris)