Skondras, Malezas join national team
Greece coach Fernando Santos called up Yiannis Skondras of Atromitos and Yiannis Malezas of PAOK on October 8 ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifying match against Georgia three days later.
Central defender Malezas has been invited before by Santos, his former coach at PAOK, but this is the first time Atromitos right-back Skondras will be joining the full Greece squad, having excelled with the Under-21 team.
With Vassilis Torosidis suffering an injury and Giorgos Samaras, Yiannis Zaradoukas and Avraam Papadopoulos’s suspensions after being booked in the game against Croatia on October 7, Santos had to resort to last-minute solutions for the match in Tbilisi.
Greece needs just one point in that game (unless Croatia fails to beat Latvia at home) to clinch the top spot in their pool and advance directly to the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Georgia coach Temuri Ketsbaia, a former Olympiakos manager and AEK player, warned Georgia will only be aiming at all three points in this last game in the group.
Meanwhile, regarding the clashes between Croatian fans and police, reports suggested that some 100 hooded men entered the stands next to the Croatians and started throwing missiles at them after the start of the game, with the Croatians responding. In the clashes that followed one Croatian fan reportedly lost a finger.
There were also riots involving Croatian fans in two areas of Piraeus on Friday.
