AEK suffered a shock exit form the Cup last night as they crashed 2-0 at Xanthi, while Aris and Thrasyvoulos advanced to the quarterfinals and OFI will be forced to replay their tie with lowly Agrotikos Asteras.

Xanthi beat their visitors through goals by Canadian Tomasz Radzinski at the 62nd minute and Stavros Lambriakos at the 87th.

The loss is set to send shockwaves to AEK, following their league loss to Asteras Tripolis on Sunday.

It was always going to be tough for AEK yesterday without Rivaldo, Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Akis Zikos, but the team’s performance was below anyone’s expectations. Xanthi fully deserved the win and celebrated duly.

B' Ethniki side Agrotikos Asteras held OFI to a 1-1 draw at the fifth round of the Greek Cup to set up a replay in Crete for a place in the competition’s quarterfinals.

Despite having to kick a ball in anger for two months due to the second and third division strike, the Thessaloniki club tried to upset their top-flight opponents at the intimidating ground of Evosmos and had several scoring chances in the first half, only to be denied by OFI goalkeeper Alexis Tzorvas.

In the second half OFI manager Giorgos Paraschos made some changes to the team who boosted their game and took the lead in the 61st minute through Brazilian striker Leozinho. However the local team fought back and equalized with 11 minutes remaining courtesy of skipper Nikos Kyzeridis.

The two teams will now meet again at Iraklion on January 23 or February 13.

Aris had no problems in Katerini against local third-division side Ethnikos, whom they beat easily 3-0.

Coach Dusan Bajevic saw his players take the lead after 27 minutes with the team’s second chance, as Javito Periane turned in the cross by Giorgos Gougoulias.

Ethnikos made some desperate efforts to get back on level terms but Aris added a second goal eight minutes into the second half through Vladan Ivic.

Ivic, who had also found the target on Sunday in the league gifting Aris a precious win over OFI, scored his third goal within four days to make it 3-0 for the Thessaloniki club, 12 minutes from the final whistle.

At Fyli, northwestern Athens, local second-division side Thrasyvoulos, who in the fourth round had ousted PAOK, were a class above visiting PAS Preveza, of the third division. Yet it took them almost an hour to open the score, via Argentine striker Juan Manuel Barrientos at the 59th minute.

Four minutes later Yiannis Katsikis made it 2-0 and experienced Ilias Anastasakos added the third with 18 minutes to go.

Preveza had lost to Veria in the fourth round but went through by default as the Super League club had not had any under-21 players in their squad, with Cup regulations requiring at least two.