Friendly loss for Greece in Germany with plenty of positive features
Greece surrendered its first-half lead in Germany to suffer a 2-1 friendly loss at Moenchengladbach on Friday, exposing the frailty of the hosts and offering plenty of promise ahead of this fall’s Nations League.
Having caretaking coach Nikos Papadopoulos on its bench, the Greek national team was strong in defense and threatening in attack until it started making the necessary substitutions for such a game.
Greece was actually unlucky to see its striker Fotis Ioannidis suffer a shoulder injury from the 7th minute to get replaced by Vangelis Pavlidis.
After a number of threatening counters, Greece carried the ball to the German box, irresistible Tzolis tried a relatively weak shot that German goalie Manuel Neuer fumbled and Giorgos Masouras got the rebound to open the score on the 33rd minute.
In the second half Germany put more pressure on the Greek defense and found the equalizer on the 55th through a swerving shot by Kai Havertz.
Neuer denied Tzolis three times on the night and the counterattacks Greece tried in the second half produced no further trouble in the German defense
A tremendous shot by Benjamin Henrichs from outside the area crashed against the cross bar seven minutes from time, before Pascal Gross found the back of the Greek net on the 89th with a right-foot volley.
Greece has got one more friendly to play, this time against Malta in Austria on Tuesday.
