2018–19 Super League Greece

Super League Greece
Season	2018–19
Dates	25 August 2018 – 5 May 2019
Champions	PAOK; 3rd title
Relegated	PAS Giannina; Levadiakos; Apollon Smyrnis
Champions League	PAOK; Olympiacos
Europa League	AEK Athens; Atromitos; Aris
Matches played	240
Goals scored	549 (2.29 per match)
Top goalscorer	Efthimis Koulouris; (19 goals)
Biggest home win	Olympiacos 5–0 PAS Giannina; (2 September 2018) ; Panetolikos 5–0 Panionios; (11 March 2019); Aris 5–0 Apollon Smyrnis; (18 March 2019); PAOK 5–0 Levadiakos; (21 April 2019); Aris 7–2 Xanthi; (5 May 2019)
Biggest away win	Panetolikos 0–5 Olympiacos; (7 April 2019)
Highest scoring	Aris 7–2 Xanthi; (5 May 2019)
Longest winning run	10 matches; Olympiacos
Longest unbeaten run	30 matches, the entire season ; PAOK
Longest winless run	13 matches; Apollon Smyrnis
Longest losing run	8 matches; Apollon Smyrnis
Highest attendance	31,250; Olympiacos 1–1 Panathinaikos; (11 November 2018)
Lowest attendance	188; Xanthi 0–1 Levadiakos; (24 February 2019)
Total attendance	1,282,139
	← 2017–18 2019–20 → All statistics correct as of 5 May 2019.

The 2018–19 Super League Greece, or Super League Souroti for sponsorship reasons,^[1] was the 83rd season of the highest tier in league of Greek football and the 13th under its current name. The season started on 25 August 2018 and concluded on 22 May 2019 with the relegation play-offs.

AEK Athens were the defending champions. OFI and Aris joined as the promoted clubs from the 2017–18 Football League,^[2] replacing Platanias and Kerkyra who were relegated to the 2018–19 Football League.

PAOK won their third championship and their first one in 34 years, by beating Levadiakos on the penultimate round of the league. Also, on July 30 and before the start of the season, the EPO removed article 30 that referred to multi-ownership cases, an act which, as it turned out, was intended to cover the acquisition of Xanthi by PAOK.^[3]

PAS Giannina, Levadiakos and Apollon Smyrnis finished in the bottom 3 and were relegated to Super League 2, while OFI, who finished 13th, faced Platanias who were runners-up of the 2018–19 Football League in the relegation play-offs on May 19 and May 22 for a place in the 2019–20 Super League. OFI won the play-offs with 3–2 on aggregate.

This was the last season with a 16-team championship. From the 2019–20 season, the league teams are going to be reduced to 14, and a playoff tournament will be introduced between the first six teams of the regular season, for a total of 36 games, in the style of the Cypriot First Division. Three teams relegated directly instead of the usual two and a fourth spot was decided between the 13th placed Super League team and the runner-up of the 2018–19 Football League. The fourth spot was a cause of controversy between the Super League and Greek Football Federation (EPO), however, the sporting court decided in favour of the play-off match in order to not completely diminish the chance for the second division runner-up to be promoted, as they would normally be promoted automatically in a normal season.

Teams

Sixteen teams will compete in the league – the top fourteen teams from the previous season, and two teams promoted from the Football League.

Teams promoted to the Super League

The first club to be promoted was OFI, after beating 1–0 Apollon Pontus on 29 April 2018. OFI would play in the Super League for the first time since the 2014–15 season.

The second and final club to be promoted was Aris, after beating 2–0 Karaiskakis on 29 April 2018. Aris would play in the Super League for the first time since the 2013–14 season.

Teams relegated to the Football League

The first club to be relegated was Platanias, who were relegated on 4 April 2018 following Apollon Smyrnis' 1–0 victory against PAS Giannina, ending their 6-year stay in the top flight.

The second and final club to be relegated was Kerkyra, who were relegated on 29 April 2018 following Lamia's 2–1 victory against PAS Giannina, ending their 2-year stay in the top flight.

Venues

AEK Athens
Apollon Smyrnis
Atromitos
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Locations of the 2018–19 Super League Greece teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
AEK Athens	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	69,618
AEL	Larissa	AEL FC Arena	16,118
Apollon Smyrnis	Athens	Georgios Kamaras Stadium	14,200
Aris	Thessaloniki	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium	22,800
Asteras Tripolis	Tripoli	Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium	7,442
Atromitos	Athens	Peristeri Stadium	9,050
Lamia	Lamia	Lamia Municipal Stadium	5,500
Levadiakos	Livadeia	Levadia Municipal Stadium	5,915
OFI	Heraklion	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium	9,088
Olympiacos	Piraeus	Karaiskakis Stadium	32,115
Panathinaikos	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	69,618
Panetolikos	Agrinio	Panetolikos Stadium	7,321
Panionios	Athens	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,700
PAOK	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium	28,703
PAS Giannina	Ioannina	Zosimades Stadium	7,652
Xanthi	Xanthi	Xanthi FC Arena	7,244

Personnel, kits and TV channel

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor	Broadcast Channel
AEK Athens	Manolo Jiménez	Petros Mantalos	Capelli	Pame Stoixima	Nova Sports
AEL	Gianluca Festa	Vangelis Moras	Legea	Thrakis Gefseis	Nova Sports
Apollon Smyrnis	Lefteris Velentzas	Michalis Kyrgias	Zeus	Venetis Bakery	ERT
Aris	Savvas Pantelidis	Georgios Delizisis	Nike	Karipidis Pallets	ERT
Asteras Tripolis	Georgios Paraschos	Matías Iglesias	Macron	Volton	Nova Sports
Atromitos	Damir Canadi	Javier Umbides	Nike	ETEKA Gas	ERT
Lamia	Makis Chavos	Anestis Anastasiadis	Nike	N/A	ERT
Levadiakos	Nikos Karageorgiou	Savvas Tsabouris	Legea	N/A	Nova Sports
OFI	Jaime Vera	Anestis Nastos	Macron	Stoiximan.gr	Nova Sports
Olympiacos	Pedro Martins	Andreas Bouchalakis	Adidas	Stoiximan.gr	Nova Sports
Panathinaikos	Giorgos Donis	Dimitris Kourbelis	Nike	Pame Stoixima	ERT
Panetolikos	Traianos Dellas	Dimitris Kyriakidis	Zeus	Emileon	ERT
Panionios	Akis Mantzios	Panagiotis Korbos	Luanvi	Tipbet.gr	Nova Sports
PAOK	Răzvan Lucescu	Vieirinha	Macron	Stoiximan.gr	Nova Sports
PAS Giannina	Giannis Petrakis	Alexios Michail	Nike	Vikos Cola, Car.gr	Nova Sports
Xanthi	Milan Rastavac	Konstantinos Fliskas	Joma	N/A	ERT

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Olympiacos	Christos Kontis (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	6 May 2018	Pre season	Pedro Martins	7 May 2018
AEK Athens	Manolo Jiménez	End of contract	25 May 2018		Marinos Ouzounidis	4 June 2018
Panathinaikos	Marinos Ouzounidis	Resigned	31 May 2018		Giorgos Donis	12 June 2018
Aris	Dimitrios Spanos	Mutual consent	1 June 2018		Paco Herrera	1 July 2018
Apollon Smyrnis	Valérien Ismaël	Sacked	31 August 2018^[4]	10th	Lefteris Velentzas (caretaker)	31 August 2018
Lamia	Babis Tennes	Resigned	4 September 2018^[5]	15th	Makis Chavos	5 September 2018^[6]
Apollon Smyrnis	Lefteris Velentzas (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	31 August 2018^[7]	15th	Alberto Monteagudo	12 September 2018^[8]
AEL	Sotiris Antoniou	Resigned	24 September 2018^[9]	15th	Gianluca Festa	25 September 2018
Apollon Smyrnis	Alberto Monteagudo	Sacked	4 October 2018^[10]	16th	Giannis Matzourakis	4 October 2018^[11]
Levadiakos	Akis Mantzios		22 October 2018	15th	Giuseppe Sannino	22 October 2018
Aris	Paco Herrera		12 November 2018	7th	Apostolos Terzis (caretaker)	12 November 2018
Asteras Tripolis	Savvas Pantelidis	Resigned	12 November 2018	15th	Georgios Paraschos	12 November 2018
Aris	Apostolos Terzis (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	14 November 2018	7th	Savvas Pantelidis	14 November 2018
Apollon Smyrnis	Giannis Matzourakis	Sacked	26 November 2018	16th	Babis Tennes	26 November 2018
Panionios	José Anigo		2 December 2018	8th	Akis Mantzios	4 December 2018
Levadiakos	Giuseppe Sannino		21 January 2019	15th	Nikos Karageorgiou	22 January 2019
OFI	Nikos Papadopoulos		21 January 2019	12th	Jaime Vera	25 January 2019
AEK Athens	Marinos Ouzounidis	Resigned	5 February 2019	3rd	Manolo Jiménez	6 February 2019
Apollon Smyrnis	Babis Tennes	Sacked	9 March 2019	16th	Lefteris Velentzas	9 March 2019

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	PAOK^[a] (C)	30	26	4	0	66	14	+52	80	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Olympiacos	30	24	3	3	71	17	+54	75	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	AEK Athens^[b]	30	18	6	6	50	19	+31	57	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
4	Atromitos	30	15	7	8	41	28	+13	52	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
5	Aris	30	15	4	11	46	33	+13	49	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
6	Panionios	30	11	5	14	27	45	−18	38
7	Lamia	30	9	10	11	28	37	−9	37
8	Panathinaikos^[c]	30	13	8	9	38	30	+8	36^[d]
9	Panetolikos	30	10	6	14	34	48	−14	36^[d]
10	AEL	30	8	10	12	26	34	−8	34
11	Asteras Tripolis	30	8	9	13	25	30	−5	33
12	Xanthi	30	7	11	12	22	34	−12	32^[e]
13	OFI (O)	30	7	11	12	30	42	−12	32^[e]	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
14	PAS Giannina (R)	30	7	6	17	19	38	−19	27	Relegation to Super League 2
15	Levadiakos (R)	30	5	6	19	15	45	−30	21
16	Apollon Smyrnis (R)	30	2	4	24	11	55	−44	10

Source: Super League Greece, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Goal difference; 5) Goals scored; 6) Goals against 7) Play-offs (neutral ground); 8) Draw.
(Note: Criteria 7 is only used if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions).^[15]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ PAOK were deducted 2 points by court decision.^[12]
^ AEK Athens were deducted 3 points by court decision.^[13]
^ Panathinaikos were deducted 11 points. 6 points for financial reasons plus 5 points by court decision.^[14]
^ ^a ^b Head-to-head points: Panathinaikos 6, Panetolikos 0.
^ ^a ^b Head-to-head points: Xanthi 4, OFI 1.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	AEL	APS	ARIS	AST	ATR	LAM	LEV	OFI	OLY	PAO	PNE	PGSS	PAOK	PAS	XAN
AEK Athens	—	0–1	2–1	4–0	3–0	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	4–0	4–0	1–1	2–0	2–0
AEL	0–0	—	3–0	0–0	2–1	0–1	1–2	2–0	0–0	0–3	1–3	1–0	4–2	1–1	2–0	1–1
Apollon Smyrnis	0–2	0–1	—	1–2	0–2	1–1	0–3	0–0	0–0	0–2	1–3	0–1	0–2	1–5	1–2	1–0
Aris	2–0	2–0	5–0	—	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	3–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–2	1–0	7–2
Asteras Tripolis	0–1	2–0	2–0	0–3	—	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–2	1–1	3–0	3–0	0–3	1–0	0–1
Atromitos	0–1	2–0	1–0	4–2	3–2	—	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–2	2–0	2–2	3–0	1–1	1–0	0–0
Lamia	2–2	2–1	2–1	0–3	0–0	2–1	—	3–2	1–1	1–3	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–0
Levadiakos	0–3	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–2	1–1	—	2–1	0–2	0–0	1–0	1–2	1–2	0–2	1–2
OFI	0–3	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–3	2–0	—	1–0	3–1	3–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	0–0
Olympiacos	4–1	4–0	1–0	4–1	2–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	5–1	—	1–1	2–1	4–0	0–1	5–0	4–0
Panathinaikos	0–0	1–1	5–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	3–0	1–3	0–3	—	4–0	1–0	0–2	2–1	2–2
Panetolikos	2–1	2–2	2–1	1–2	1–1	1–2	2–2	2–1	2–1	0–5	0–1	—	5–0	1–2	1–0	0–0
Panionios	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–1	2–2	0–1	2–0	3–0	—	0–1	2–1	1–0
PAOK	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	3–0	3–0	5–0	4–0	3–1	2–0	2–1	3–0	—	2–1	2–0
PAS Giannina	0–4	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	0–2	3–1	0–2	—	0–0
Xanthi	1–3	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–1	3–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–1	—

Source: Super League Greece
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Team ╲ Round
PAOK	8	4	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Olympiacos	5	1	1	1	5	3	4	4	3	3	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
AEK Athens	2	3	2	5	3	6	3	3	5	5	7	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Atromitos	3	5	5	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Aris	1	2	3	4	4	4	6	8	7	7	5	6	6	7	7	6	8	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Panionios	7	10	13	14	11	9	9	10	9	8	8	8	8	10	9	10	10	9	9	9	10	10	10	12	9	10	9	7	6	6
Lamia	15	15	16	15	14	13	10	9	10	10	10	12	13	14	14	13	12	10	11	11	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	7
Panathinaikos	16	12	7	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	6	6	9	10	8
Panetolikos	9	6	6	9	10	8	8	7	8	9	9	9	9	6	6	8	7	8	7	7	8	7	7	6	6	7	7	6	7	9
AEL	4	8	9	11	8	10	11	11	11	11	11	10	11	11	11	9	9	11	12	12	11	12	12	11	12	9	10	10	9	10
Asteras Tripolis	11	14	15	10	12	12	14	14	14	15	13	11	10	9	10	11	11	12	10	10	12	11	11	10	11	12	12	12	12	11
Xanthi	13	11	11	8	7	7	7	5	4	4	6	7	7	8	8	7	6	7	8	8	7	8	8	8	10	11	11	11	11	12
OFI	6	9	12	13	15	15	13	12	12	13	15	14	12	13	13	12	14	14	13	14	14	15	15	15	14	14	14	13	13	13
PAS Giannina	14	16	10	7	9	11	12	13	13	14	12	13	14	12	12	14	13	13	14	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	14	14	14
Levadiakos	12	7	8	12	13	14	15	15	15	12	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	15	15	15	15	15	15
Apollon Smyrnis	10	13	14	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

	Champion and Champions League third qualifying round
	Champions League second qualifying round
	Europa League third qualifying round
	Europa League second qualifying round
	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
	Relegation to 2019–20 Super League Greece 2

Source: Super League Greece

Relegation play-offs

Summary
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Platanias	2–3	OFI	0–0	2–3

19 May 2019

21:30 EEST

Platanias	0–0	OFI
	Report

Perivolia Municipal Stadium, Chania

Attendance: 2,700

Referee: Athanasios Tzilos (Larissa)

22 May 2019

19:00 EEST

OFI	3–2	Platanias
Neira 11' (pen.) Giakoumakis 70' Nabi 90+6'	Report	Tsamouris 42' Papanikolaou 90+2'

Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Heraklion

Attendance: 6,500

Referee: Georgios Kominis (Thesprotia)

OFI won 3–2 on aggregate and retained their spot in 2019–20 Super League. Platanias placed in 2019–20 Super League 2.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 5 May 2019^[16]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Efthymis Koulouris	Atromitos	19
2	Ezequiel Ponce	AEK Athens	16
3	Kostas Fortounis	Olympiacos	12
4	Ahmed Hassan	Olympiacos	11
5	Georgios Masouras	Panionios / Olympiacos	10
	Federico Macheda	Panathinaikos
	Mateo García	Aris
8	Aleksandar Prijović	PAOK	9
	Hamza Younés	Aris
	Jerónimo Barrales	Lamia

Top assists