Late penalty ends Greek dream of a miracle against the Dutch
Greece fought hard to contain the Netherlands, but lost 1-0 in front of a sell-out crowd at the Agia Sophia OPAP Arena at Nea Filadelfia on Monday night. This means Greece is all but out of the race for the second place in its Euro 2024 qualifying group.
The Dutch were given two controversial penalties and scored from the second, in injury time.
The Greek defense had long spells of suffering as the visitors’ pressure was overwhelming at times, at least in the first hour of the game. However in the last half-hour Greece showed it believed in victory and pressured the visitors in search of a goal.
The Dutch first earned a penalty from a Kostas Koulierakis pull on Virgil van Dijk, but Odysseas Vlachodimos stood tall to block the shot by Wout Weghorst on the 28th.
The Greek keeper had another excellent intervention to a Bergwijn shot on the 44th minute and beat the Dutch striker again early in the second half with a diving effort.
A combative Fotis Ioannidis asked several questions at the Dutch defense, including a shot that narrowly missed the target five minutes in to the second half and a header that went a meter wide seven minutes from time.
In the last few minutes Greece coach Gustavo Poyet played with three strikers in the hope of a goal that would give Greece all three points.
Yet a minute from the end one of the strikers introduced, Vangelis Pavlidis, conceded another penalty that Van Dijk took to beat Vlachodimos and score the game’s sole goal. Van Dijk won’t have made many friends at Nea Filadelfia with his celebration that mocked the home fans, some of whom had aimed at his eyes with laser pens.
Greece has got 12 points, the same as the Dutch, and one game left, that due in November at home against the group’s runaway leader France. The Netherlands have got two, facing Ireland at home and Gibraltar away, and it is up to them to get the ticket to the finals.
Crucially, though, this Greece showed it has got what is needed to advance to the finals through the UEFA Nations League playoffs in March 2024.
