The Greek national team held its own against Germany and now has the upper hand in the tiebreaker for second place in the group! Ivan Jovanović’s team was under heavy pressure from Jürgen Klopp’s squad at Toumba Stadium, but held its ground in their head-to-head match for Matchday 4 of League A in the Nations League, and thus, following the 0-0 draw on Sunday night (October 4), they remained undefeated. At the same time, they have reached eight points compared to the Germans’ five, and with two matches remaining—against the Netherlands (away) and Serbia (away)— they know that if they beat Serbia in the final match, they will finish at least second in the group! This would mean they would advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament in March. As for the group standings, however, they have temporarily “dropped” to second place following the Netherlands’ victory over Serbia, which took place at the same time.
Konstantis Tzolakis put in a stellar performance, keeping a clean sheet with his saves, especially in the first half. In the second half, the Germans once again dominated, but the match was much more evenly matched after Ivan Jovanović’s interventions. This is a setback for the national team, however, ahead of the match against the Netherlands during the next break, as Christos Zafeiris received a yellow card— his second of this break, reaching the threshold that will keep him from playing in the away match against the “Oranje” in November.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The starting lineups for the match
Greece (Ivan Jovanović): Tzolakis, Saliakas, Mavropanos (79′ Retsos), Koulierakis, Zafeiris, Kourbelis (69′ Mouzakitis), Kyziridis (46′ Androutsos), Masouras, Pavlidis (46′ Karetsas), Ioannidis (88′ Kostoulas).
Germany (Jürgen Klopp): Urbig, Tiao, Anton, Pavlovic, Bischof (83′ Conte), Serrad (83′ Baur), Burkard (64′ Voltemande), Troy, Karl (64′ El Mala), Wirz, Raum.
*photo source: AP
