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Greece have pulled past a poor Socceroos side as they secured a 2-1 win in Melbourne.
It was a sloppy start from the Socceroos as Greece pressured a wobbly defence from the outset.
With eight minutes gone Greece’s pressuring would pay dividends with the Socceroos caught in possession in midfield. Greece countering and quickly finding Petros Mantalos in the box who finished calmly past Adam Federici to open the scoring.
As the Socceroos continued to struggle, Greece were to add another goal in embarrassing and spectacular fashion on 20 minutes. Federici caught off his line as Giannis Maniatis struck a wonder goal from halfway. The defensive midfielder spotting the Socceroos keeper well off his line after a Socceroos cough up on halfway, striking the ball sweetly over the head of Federici which bounced once on the goal-line and into the Socceroos net.
Towards the tail end of the first half there was very little friendliness shown in this apparent friendly with three yellow cards and some ugly challenges rubber stamping a dramatic half.
The Socceroos emerged from the break looking sturdier across the park as they went on to dominate possession.
Possession that would secure their opening and sole goal on 57 minutes through Trent Sainsbury. An Aaron Mooy corner finding the head of Tim Cahill who had his effort flicked on to the crossbar by Mark Milligan with Sainsbury on hand to bury the follow up with a header.
Despite having much of the ball, the Socceroos struggled to create with the Greece defence holding firm from then on.
The Socceroos unable to remedy a dismal first half as they failed to find an equaliser. Greece worthy winners on the night.
Final Score:
Socceroos 1
Greece 2
The Socceroos will be looking to do the double over Greece on the back of the weekend’s 1-0 win when they host them again. Join us on The Roar from 8pm (AEST) for all of the action.
Australia had to wait until injury time to snatch victory over Greece in Sydney on a wet Saturday night, with Matthew Leckie sweeping home to break the deadlock with the final kick of the game.
It could have been a 2-0 win after a Tim Cahill header found the back of the net earlier in the match, but despite Cahill’s raucous celebrations the goal was disallowed as the ball – coming from an Alex Gersbach corner – was deemed to have gone outside the field before it came to him.
Cahill will no doubt be looking to score a goal on this occasion to make up for the one he missed out on.
The Socceroos dominated much of the first match and will be looking to improve tonight in Melbourne. As Ange Postecoglou experiments with a youthful backline, Australia stuttered at times, but were also silky smooth on occasion.
For the Greeks, who will be watching Euro 2016 from the sidelines, it was a miserable Saturday night showing, with an early injury to first-choice keeper Orestis Karnezis not helping their cause. If he remains unfit to play, his stand-in, Stefanos Kapino, proved he is more than capable of filling in.
Australia survived the slippery conditions and will field a near full-strength squad.
Although threatening at times, Greece weren’t able to put the Socceroos’ goal under consistent pressure and paid the price in defence later on.
Will the Socceroos make it two from two, or can Greece leave Australia with a precious victory? Join us on The Roar from 8pm (AEST) for the match.
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