Home wins for Greek Cup favorites
The group stage of the 2017-18 Greek Cup kicked off this week without any major upsets as all favorites scored home wins against top-flight opposition.
Holder PAOK saw off Levadiakos 2-1 in Thessaloniki and champion Olympiakos defeated Asteras Tripolis by the same score in Piraeus, three days after the two teams drew 1-1 at the same ground for the league.
Last year’s finalist AEK played Lamia at Rizoupoli due to work on the Olympic Stadium’s grass, and won 2-0. Panathinaikos beat Larissa by the same score at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, but lost Brazilian striker Luciano Neves for the next five months due to a knee injury.
The results of the week’s other games were Platanias 1 Apollon Smyrnis 0, Aiginiakos 0 Apollon Kalamarias 1, Kallithea 1 Apollon Larissas 2, Atromitos 1 Kerkyra 0, Sparti 1 Trikala 3, Hania 1 Acharnaikos 0, Panserraikos 2 Ergotelis 0, Xanthi 2 Panetolikos 0, Panionios 1 PAS Giannina 1, Panaigialios 0 Aris 1 and Panachaiki 1 Anagennisi Karditsas 0.
The top two teams of each group of four qualify to the next round.
