Greeks triumph at Wembley and honor Baldock
The day after the death of Greece defender George Baldock, the Greek national team dedicated to his memory its first ever victory over England at Wembley, winning 2-1 for the Nations League.
Eager to do their best to honor their colleague who passed away on Wednesday in Athens, the players of coach Ivan Jovanovic produced on Thursday one of Greece’s best performances in the last 20 years and with tears in their eyes they lifted to the sky a Greece jersey with Baldock’s name on.
The passion the Greeks showed was amazing, and just when they seemed to get under pressure in the last few minutes, they went and restored their lead to snatch the win that makes them top favorites for this pool and for promotion to the top division of the competition.
The home team was far from indifferent. Playing in front of a capacity crowd, the Three Lions put pressure on the Greeks and created chances from the start of the game. Yet as the first half went on, Greece grew in confidence and started troubling Jordan Pickford at the England goal.
Having had two goals denied in the first half, first through a goal line clearance and then via a correct offside decision, the Greeks brimmed with confidence in the second half and deservedly took the lead less than five minutes after the interval.
Central defender Konstantinos Koulierakis performed a solo effort and found Vangelis Pavlidis in the box, who danced the defenders before slotting the ball home, past Pickford.
Greece thought it had got another goal seven minutes from the end, but Pavlidis’ second was denied again as an offside.
England took heart from that and managed to equalize three minutes from the end, with Jude Bellingham.
However the Greeks were not to be denied. In another counter, three minutes into injury time, they put three players into the England box and Pavlidis scored again to give Greece all three points.
The Greeks have therefore extended their perfect record in the group, with nine points out of three games. They will next host Ireland on Sunday.
