Hopefully, This is The Turning Point

Has the Greek National Team finally found the man to take them forward? In the last two UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying games against Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina we have seen a team that seems united and that is executing the game plans of a flexible manager, which arguably for a large majority of time since the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has been non existent.

The Italy Game: Prior to this fixture, and after the unacceptable draw with Liechtenstein, I had serious doubts once again about the man employed by the EPO for the Ethniki, and on paper it seemed like the Italians were going to make life only more miserable, but much to my surprise and delight a relatively inexperienced Greece put up a genuinely serious fight against a powerhouse of world football, there was an obvious game plan and the players bought into it. 

Italy found it so difficult to break a stubborn Greece down that it took a needless handball by Andreas Bouchalakis inside the penalty area early in the second half that gifted Italy a penalty, from which they finally scored. Before that Greece arguably could have been two goals up if it weren't for Dimitris Limnios and Efthymios Koulouris spurning very gettable chances, a deflected Federico Bernadeschi shot resulting in a second Italian goal put Greece's microscopic realistic chances of qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020 to bed. 

However it'd be cruel for any Ethniki fan to not realise that the players went out there and gave it their absolute all wanting to try to turn things around, and a lot of credit must go to coach John van't Schip who was able to get the best out of the players and implement a game plan that clearly worked. All that was missing was the ability to finish, which he as coach can do very little about. 

Debutant Pantelis Hatzidiakos, Zeca, Dimitris Kourbelis and captain on the night Kostas Stafylidis all in particular deserve the most praise if you ask me, the latter's leadership in particular was unquestionable and Hatzidiakos, Kourbelis and Zeca all optimised the defensive game plan superbly. 

The Bosnia game: After seeing a much improved match against Italy three days earlier, my expectation was for Greece to take that same mindset and momentum into the match against a familiar face in a competitive sense in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the visitors had their realistic qualification hopes on the line and were high on confidence after thumping Finland by four goals to one three days earlier, the task ahead for the Ethniki was not going to be easy. 

After an even opening half an hour of first half action, Greece struck in clinical fashion courtesy of it's front four of the night, Dimitris Limnios (who was a nightmare all night for Bosnia with his pace) played a beautifully waited pass in-field, a clever dummy by the much improved Anastasios Bakasetas lead to the ball finding Petros Mantalos, who then played an even better pass to the hugely talented prospect Vangelis Pavlidis, who took his time, didn't panic and gave Greece a one nil advantage with a very calm finish. 

Unfortunately the team was guilty of a school boy mistake five minutes later as Amer Gojak for some reason was left completely unmarked from a low cross and equalised for Bosnia and Herzegovina from no more than 5 yards. 

The second half could be described as an onslaught from the home side, which to the naked eye could have been seen as strange given that Greece were officially out of qualification contention and with only pride to play for, while Bosnia had their realistic qualification hopes on the line, but as the second half wore on it was wave after wave of Greek attacks albeit with Bosnia having the odd dangerous passage of play. By the time the 88th minute came around luck was on Greece's side and they were finally rewarded for their constant attacking dominance in the second half, substitute Giannis Fetfatzidis made a lung-bursting run down the right hand side, and when it looked like the chance had gone, he put in a dangerous cross that was turned in by Bosnian Defender Adnan Kovacevic for an own goal. 

After nervously defending the final set piece of the game in the fifth minute of injury time, the final whistle came and there was an enormous amount of relief and joy as Greece held on for the much deserved and craved victory. 

The entire team who took the field that night deserve all the praise they get, in my opinion there was not one player who was better than any other, it was a classic team performance.

There is reason for optimism going forward, however they must not get carried away, after away fixture against Bosnia earlier this year I had similar optimistic views about where the team was headed and look what happened, if positive results are obtained against Armenia and Finland in our final two matches of UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying, then it would be almost safe to say that at the very least Greece have turned a corner.

By Christian for Hellas Football