Panathinaikos saw off Panetolikos 3-0 in the Super League 1 regular season at the Olympic Sports Centre Athens "Spyros Louis" on Saturday evening. The hosts moved four points clear at the top after a comfortable victory that left the visitors well short of their ambitions.
Vicente Taborda opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute and the momentum never really shifted. Nikola Stajic picked up a yellow card for Panetolikos in the nineteenth, a moment that felt like the visitors were already playing catch-up.
And here's the thing — the twentieth minute brought Taborda off, and by then the match had settled into a rhythm only the home side seemed to understand. Giannis Satsias came on for Panetolikos at the half-hour, but the visitors were still searching for something.
Azzedine Ounahi doubled the lead in the thirty-ninth minute before the interval, and the game opened up again after the break. Etiene Camara was booked for the visitors in the thirty-third, another yellow that added to the pressure on a side struggling to find any foothold.
Davide Calabria added a third in stoppage time, and while the goal came late, the result had been decided long before. Panetolikos had three substitutions in the fifty-seventh minute alone, turning to the bench but finding little to work with.
The statistics tell the story without embellishment. Panathinaikos held 61 per cent possession and created four big chances, while the visitors managed none at all. Nine shots on target against two for Panetolikos — the hosts were far more clinical.
Panathinaikos sit four points clear at the summit with four wins from four, a clean sheet to add to their recent run of results. Panetolikos remain fourth with nine points, their solitary defeat now coming against a side that showed no mercy.