Convincing Greece puts three past Northern Ireland
National team wins its group and gets promoted to the Nations League second division
Greece won its Nations League third division group in style, beating Northern Ireland 3-1 in Athens on Tuesday to collect 15 points from six games.
In front of some 10,000 fans at the Georgios Kamaras Stadium of Rizoupoli, the players of Gustavo Poyet showed resolve and determination three days after the 1-0 loss to Cyprus.
Dimitris Pelkas opened the score on the 14th minute, but Shayne Lavery equalized for the visitors just four minutes later, leading the two times to the locker rooms with a 1-1 half-time result.
However in the second half Greece was considerably better and offered fans a well-crafted goal that put Giorgos Massouras on the scoresheet 10 minutes after the break.
Then Petros Mantalos produced a stunning goal with a long-range swerver that was the highlight of the game, on the 80th minute.
Greece will not be in the World Cup this November, but it will have the sweet taste of promotion to the second tier of the Nations League where it will face considerably better opponents.
