It’s a big game at a packed Toumba Stadium for Greece, which hosts Germany (9:45 p.m.) for Matchday 4 of Group 2 in League A of the Nations League. The match in Thessaloniki will wrap up the national team’s fixtures for this break, with the two remaining matches to complete the group stage scheduled for November.
Ivan Jovanović’s team faces both a challenge and an opportunity in this match, as it sits undefeated at the top of the group with seven points and knows that if it avoids defeat and Serbia does not beat the Netherlands in Eindhoven, it will have secured, at the very least, third place, which—barring any surprises—guarantees a spot in the first seeding pot for the Euro 2028 qualifiers.
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Meanwhile, with the “Oranje” at five points and Jürgen Klopp’s team at four, the Greek national team is looking for a strong result that will significantly boost its chances of finishing in the top two of the group, which leads to the Nations League quarterfinals. Will it be an easy task against Germany? Obviously not.
The “blue-and-whites” will face a team looking for revenge after the double defeat in Augsburg—though that’s where Greece showed it can hurt the Germans. They stuck faithfully to their game plan from start to finish, found openings on offense in the second half, and the goal that sealed the historic victory came from Kurbelis.
The national team came close to a 3-0 record against the Netherlands, but the final 2-2 draw leaves a bittersweet taste. This is because they held a two-goal lead thanks to Ioannidis and Masoura (who combined for both goals), but in the second half, Xavi’s team was the better side, aided in large part by the substitutions he made, and secured the draw in the closing minutes—a result that can be considered fair.
“We’re definitely under pressure. We always are. The thing is, when you want to get a good result—especially when it comes to the national team—you have to live with the pressure. In the second half against the Netherlands, we didn’t play at the same level as in the first half, which was fantastic. But that can happen. “We need to understand why it happened; we discussed with the players why there was a lack of balance, so that it doesn’t happen again,” Jovanović said, among other things, at the press conference.
Managing fatigue from the back-to-back matches will be a key factor in tonight’s game, as the national team coach will be without Christos Tzolis, who suffered a strain against the Dutch and has left the squad. Dimitris Pelkas has taken the 24-year-old attacking midfielder’s place; he has joined the squad and will be available for the match against Germany. It’s possible that Jovanović will make 2–3 changes to his starting lineup, though it seems unlikely he’ll make too many changes.
On the other side, Klopp has used many players in these Nations League matches to assess the full depth of the German national team’s roster ahead of the new era for the four-time World Cup champions. He initially called up 44 players and continues to give opportunities to the entire roster. It’s telling, in fact, that he has rotated the starting goalkeeper in all three matches so far and plans to do so again against Greece, handing the starting spot to Augsburg’s Finn Dammen.
In their previous match, Germany secured its first victory with Klopp at the helm, defeating Serbia 2-0 thanks to goals from Bischof and Wirz. The “Panzers” will be without Serge Gnabry for tonight’s game, who was left off the roster; his spot in the 23-man squad was taken by Felix Kaidel of Elversberg, making his first call-up to the men’s national team.
Here is the full German roster for the match at Toumba: Atumbolo, Damen, Urbig, Anton, Bakou, Gelz, Mittelsten, Raum, Tio, Troy, Bauer, Bischof, El Mala, Konte, Engelhardt, Janelt, Kaidel, Pavlovic, Serhad, Wirz, Karl, Burkard, Voltemande.
Possible starting lineups:
Greece (Ivan Jovanović): Tzolakis – Saliakas, Mavropanos, Retsos, Tsimikas – Karetsas, Kourbelis (Androutsos), Zafeiris, Masouras (Tetei) – Pavlidis, Ioannidis (Kostoulas).
Germany (Jürgen Klopp): Finn Damen – Troy, Tio, Anton, Mittelsten – Pavlovic, Bischof – El Mala, Wirz, Konte – Voltemande.
Referee: Clément Turpin (France)
Assistant Referees: Nicolas Danos (France), Benjamin Paz (France)
Fourth Official: Éric Vatelier (France)
VAR: Jérôme Brissard (France)
AVAR: Bastien Desépy (France)
*photo source: AP
