Asteras Tripoli 2-0 Partizan Belgrade

Asteras Tripoli put in an impressive home performance to easily overcome Partizan Belgrade 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday night.The Greeks were playing their eighth European game of the season and their growing experience is clearly doing them good as they outclassed their Serbian opponents all over the pitch.Goals from Fernando Usero and Facundo Parra saw them ease to victory and take top spot in Group C.Partizan stopper Milan Lukac was the first of the two goalkeepers to make a save as he easily turned away Martin Rolle's early free-kick.Parra then flashed header wide before Branko Ilic went in the book for a challenge on Giannis Gianniotas as the match got off to a disjointed start.It came to life in the 22nd minute, though, as Usero fired the home side into the lead.The Spaniard accepted a pass from Pablo Mazza following some smart play and, despite Lukac saving his initial effort, the skipper tucked away the rebound to put his team in front.Mazza then had an effort of his own but Lukac made a smart save with his feet before the Serbians had their first real chance with Vojislav Stankovic missing the target from a corner.It was Asteras who were in the ascendency, though, and Rolle tested Lukac again with a long-range shot before the break.The Greeks began the second half as they finished the first with Gianniotas forcing Lukac into a save and Parra missing the target when he probably should have done better.But the Argentinian had his goal in the 52nd minute as he tapped in Braian Lluy's cross at the back post to double the lead.Gianniotas clearly wanted in on the act and had another shot saved before missing the target either side of Tomas Kosicky making his first major contribution with a save from Miroslav Vulicevic at the other end.Lluy had his tail up and narrowly fired over from the edge of the box before bringing two saves from Lukac as Asteras comfortably held on to maintain their unbeaten European home record.ends