Ioannidis secured the victory in 
Jovanovic's debut on the coaching bench

By Andreas Mitsis

Attacking ace Ioannidis is hugged after his second goal of the evening.

Ivan Jovanovic's debut on the coaching bench ended in a comfortable 3-0 victory against Finland in the Nations League. Two of the goals were scored by Fotis Ioannidis who was the best on the pitch. Next, Ireland await away from home next week.

The premiere in the Nations League B league for the national team at home in Karaiskakis against Finland was also new national team captain Ivan Jovanovic's first game in charge of the national team. 3-0 ended the match after Fotis Ioannidis made the difference. 

Jovanovic chose an eleven based on experience, chemistry and went a bit "safe", which is logical when he only had time for a few training sessions with the team. 

The first 45 minutes were in fact no further effort from the national team. It was tentative, a bit nervous and contained some simple mistakes, especially in midfield. Despite that, Fotis Ioannidis was able to make it 1-0 after 23 minutes played when he forced the opposition goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky into a mistake. 

Just over ten minutes later, the goal yield was doubled when first Tasos Bakasetas found Fotis Ioannidis, who in turn served the ball to the overlapping Kostas Tsimikas. Liverpool's left-back played obliquely towards the back according to the textbook, where goal-dangerous centre-back Dinos Koulierakis was in place and looked to score 2-0 with a clinical finish. 

However, it was not the new Wolfsburg player who was last on the ball but Benjamin Källman, which meant that the goal was recorded as an own goal. Finland, despite a lot of ball possession, could never really threaten with a dangerous goal chance against a compact defensive. Thanks to greater individual skill, we were able to go into the half-time break 2-0 up.

In the second half, we saw an increasingly confident national team. The players got better in the possession game and Giannis Konstantelias' entry on the pitch during the half-time break gave the team a completely different creativity which resulted in e.g. more opening passes could be executed. Ioannidis would score his second goal of the evening when he rose to head a corner from team captain Bakasetas and neatly headed in to make it 3-0. 

The national team stood for a tactically well executed match and will take the second half and the three points with them. Great for a pragmatic Jovanovic to get off to a winning start in his first match in charge of the national team. He can thank his former player in Panathinaikos, Fotis Ioannidis, for a lot. 

The 24-year-old was the best on the pitch together with centre-back Dinos Mavropanos. Otherwise, Christos Zafeiris made his debut when he jumped into the middle in the second half. It is also noteworthy that Giorgos Masouras unfortunately had to withdraw before the match due to injury and Olympiakos offensive midfielder will also miss the meeting away to Ireland on Tuesday (10/9).  

It is of the utmost importance to try and do everything we can to collect as many points as possible and come at least second in our Nations League group as England are favorites for first place. 

This could possibly give us an opportunity to play a playoff against group two in the World Cup qualifier, provided we do not reach the World Cup through the qualifier itself, which has become increasingly difficult. In addition, we get the chance to advance to the Nations League A league through playoff qualification. 

The progress in the Nations League also plays a role in terms of the seeding ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifying draw.

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Match facts

Greece - Finland 3-0

1-0 Fotis Ioannidis 23 min

2-0 Own goal 37 min

3-0 Fotis Ioannidis 76 min

Greece (Jovanovic):  Vlachodimos, Rota, Mavropanos, Koulierakis, Tsimikas, Bouchalakis (65' Siopis ), Mantalos (65' Zafeiris), Bakasetas (77' Vagiannidis), Chatzigiovanis (46' Konstantelias), Pelkas, Ioannidis (77' Pavlidis).

Finland (Kanerva): Hradecky, Peltola, Ivanov, Hoskonen, Kamara (82' Walta), Antman (62' Keskinen), Lod (62' Jensen), Schüller (45' Nissilä), Ståhl, Galvez, Källman (62' Pohjanpalo).

@Mitsaras87A

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