Panetolikos beat Asteras Tripoli 3-1 in the opening matchday of the Super League 1 regular season on Saturday evening. The hosts took all three points at their own stadium, adding to their perfect start this campaign. Asteras Tripoli, meanwhile, remain winless after two consecutive defeats.
Granath gave Panetolikos the lead in the sixth minute, a goal that set the tone for the first half. By then, Asteras had already seen two efforts ruled out — first in the thirty-first minute and again a minute later, both times for offside. The visitors had opportunities but couldn't convert them.
Mavrias doubled the home advantage in the fifty-eighth minute, extending the lead before the hour mark. Asteras pulled one back through Macheda in the seventy-eighth minute, only for Aleksic to restore the two-goal cushion two minutes later. The visitors never really got going after those late goals.
There were plenty of changes on both sides. Panetolikos made four substitutions between the sixty-fourth and seventy-fourth minutes, while Asteras brought on five players across the same window. Esteban Diego and Kotsiras came on for the hosts in the eighty-fourth minute, with Satsias following a minute later.
The statistics tell a familiar story. Asteras enjoyed sixty per cent possession and created more attacks, but their shots went begging — six on target against seven off target. Panetolikos had just four shots on target, all of them finding the net. Big chances created stood at three for the visitors and two for the hosts.
The result moves Panetolikos to second in the table, two points ahead of the leaders with a game in hand. Asteras sit thirteenth, still searching for their first point of the season. The hosts had lost to Asteras 1-2 in their last meeting in May, so this victory carries extra weight.