National team lets Greeks down
Greece has missed out on the Euro 2024 finals, as its poor game in the so-called “match of the decade” at Georgia ended in a shootout defeat to the hosts on Tuesday.
The 90 minutes of regulation plus the 30 minutes of extra time ended goalless, and in the penalties the Greeks kept underperforming missing two out of four kicks, with the Georgians snatching the ticket to Germany’s finals this summer for the first time in their history.
Georgia was definitely the better team across the 120 minutes in Tbilisi, in this final of the third tier of the Nations League. The Greeks were not a patch on the team that five days earlier had dismissed Kazakhstan in Athens with a 5-0 score, and struggled to produce any goal-scoring chances in the 90 minutes.
The visitors created their best opportunities in the first half of extra time, when Dinos Mavropanos headed the ball against the crossbar on the 102nd minute, while a minute later Lazaros Rota could not score with the goal at his mercy.
A number of defensive errors by Greece did not cost it, either due to the failure of the Georgian players to score or thanks to Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos.
Then in the shootout captain Tasos Bakasetas had his kick saved while Giorgos Giakoumakis sent his off target, and the Georgians won 4-2.
This was also certain to have been the swansong of Uruguayan coach Gus Poyet on the Greek bench.
“It was not meant to be,” Poyet stated after the game, stressing how devastated his players were. He also stopped short of speaking about his future at the job, saying that this was not the right moment for that.
