Goalless draw for Greece in forgetful Poland friendly

The national soccer team should be rather happy for avoiding defeat in Tuesday’s friendly against host Poland, just three days after its disgraceful 2-1 loss at the Faroe Islands.

The 0-0 result at Gdansk reflects the interest and passion that the two teams showed in this end-of-season friendly, although Greece was definitely a more convincing team than the one that conceded two goals to the Faroe.

Another reason Greece will be happy with the result in that it has preserved its FIFA ranking that had been quite battered by its Euro 2016 qualifiers results, as it will now place Greece in the third and not the fourth pot of next month’s draw for the European zone of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Coach Sergio Markarian made eight changes to the starting line-up and the national team appeared less stressed than in its competitive games.

The Uruguayan manager will be happy with the defensive performance of his players, and especially of reserve goalkeeper Stefanos Kapino. Even he was lucky enough those to see the Polish struck the crossbar on the 40th minute.

This was also the farewell match with the national team for Costas Katsouranis, after 116 caps.