Athens, Greece, Aug 26: Crowd violence twice interrupted the Panathinaikos-Maccabi Tel Aviv match in the Europa League playoffs on Thursday.
The game was stopped after just five minutes when riot police fired tear gas to break up a fight, filling the stands with noxious fumes. No injuries or arrests were reported, and the game resumed after about half an hour.
Play was briefly interrupted again in the second half after fans threw flares onto the pitch, and set fire to the stands.
Panathinaikos won 2-1 but Maccabi advanced on aggregate after winning the first leg 3-0.
Greek football is often marred by crowd violence, which successive governments have pledged to stop - to little avail. AP
