Greece improves to impose itself on Egypt
Greece produced a much more encouraging performance in its friendly game with Egypt on Tuesday, as the victory with a 1-0 score can in no way reflect the Greek supremacy in the match played in Zurich.
Four days after its mediocre home performance that brought a loss to Switzerland by the same score, Greece was significantly changed in terms of faces as well as playing tactics, chasing a goal from start to finish. Of course the fact that Egypt was without its superstar, Mohamed Salah, played its part too.
This time the lone striker up front, Nikos Karelis, was much more efficient than Costas Mitroglou was four nights earlier, and he headed home on the half-hour mark after a perfect cross from the right by Michalis Bakakis.
A few minutes later Costas Stafylidis was unlucky to see his spectacular lob that went into the net from a wide position not count as Greece’s second goal because he was wrongly flagged as offside.
Egypt also had a few chances in the first half, but in the second half and particularly in its first 30 minutes Greece went out with all guns blazing, forcing Egypt – that has qualified to the World Cup – to a passive role in the game.
Reports say that the next friendly games Greece will play will be against Iran and Saudi Arabia, following the end of the club season and before the World Cup.
