The Greek side knew that nothing short of victory, however improbable that was given their miserable record, would suffice to keep alive their slim hopes of making it into the next knockout stage.

And their task was eased after Lille's Greek defender Efstathios Tavlaridis, enduring a stormy and brief return home, was dismissed by English referee Stephen Bennett with 22 minutes played.

The former Arsenal back picked up his first booking in the opening minutes for a challenge on Nikolaos Liberopoulos and received a second and fatal yellow card when he brought down AEK's Finnish midfielder Perparim Hetemaj on the left side of the penalty area.

Liberopoulos had a shot blocked by Lille keeper Tony Sylva in the 67th minute but the striker who missed out on his country's shock Euro 2004 triumph made no mistake seven minutes later.

The 31-year-old attacker was the toast of Athens when he produced a stunning right-footed shot which escaped Sylva's clutches to lodge into the back of the Lille net.

Lille coach Claude Puel, already having to contemplate life without Tavlaridis for the tie against Anderlecht later this month, will also be without Yohan Cabaye after his late challenge on Bruno Cirillo.

"It's a bad evening and we're frustrated considering the effort put in by the players, they deserved a different result to this," said Puel.

He added: "On a positive note everything's still to play for in this Champions League."

AEK, gaining revenge after their 3-1 defeat at Lille two weeks ago, move up to third place on four points, one shy of Lille with AC Milan five points clear at the top of Group H with two ties remaining.

The Greek side's coach, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, reflected: "I think this first win will have a major psychological impact. It's only a beginning, but it was a very important win for us, and hugely satisfying for our fans."