Winning start for Ivan Jovanovic’s Greece
Greece made a very positive start to its new UEFA Nations League campaign, beating Finland 3-0 in Piraeus on Saturday at the debut of coach Ivan Jovanovic on the Greek bench, with striker Fotis Ioannidis stealing the show.
The new era for the national team has started with a good result at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, with the performance of the Greeks improving as the game went along and the Finns were troubled by the Greek heat.
The hosts seemed wobbly but lucky in the first half, while in the second they imposed their game on the visitors, largely thanks to the introduction at half-time of Yiannis Konstantelias.
Against the run of play in the first half, Greece took a two-goal lead in the first 45 minutes, first thanks to Ioannidis pressuring Finland goalkeeper Lucas Hradecky to steal the ball and tuck it in on the 23rd, and then through a great team effort that involved Ioannidis, Dimitris Pelkas and Konstantinos Koulierakis that ended in Greece’s second goal off Finland striker Benjamin Kallman.
Finland’s holding of the ball was not accompanied by any shots on target, and when the second half started Greece showed improved confidence and great ideas in attack.
After Ioannidis had a close-range shot stopped by Hradecky and the upright, the Panathinaikos striker managed to score his second goal on the 76th through a header following a corner kick from the right, to seal the fate of the game.
Greece will next visit Ireland on Tuesday night.
