Attack-minded Greece reap rewards
 

Playing some wonderful football along the way, Greece deservedly defeated Bosnia 2-1 in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying this week with the team unleashing an impressive 25 shots at goal.

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A victory which won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Greek supporters have got used to watching dismal football from their national team in the last few years, but the players gave everyone a reason to smile on Tuesday, defeating Bosnia 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium with a superb performance. Completely outplaying the lacklustre Bosnians, Greece displayed free-flowing, slick football in Athens, creating a huge amount of opportunities while nullifying the threat of gifted Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic.

Greece should have won by a much bigger margin. Dominating proceedings, the Ethniki Omada had 25 attempts at goal, with seven of them being on target while Giorgos Masouras and Konstantinos Stafylidis were denied by the woodwork. Poor finishing looked as though it was going to cost Greece two points, but with 120 seconds remaining in regulation time, Adnan Kovacevic inadvertently turned Giannis Fetfatzidis’ cross into his own net. Vangelis Pavlidis had scored the first Greek goal in the 30th minute.

Interestingly, statistics provided by UEFA show that Bosnia completed more passes, but the visitors very rarely tested Alexandros Paschalakis as they only had five shots. Let’s take a look at some of the key numbers to emerge from the match:

Possession: 51% - 49%

Shots at goal: 25 - 5

Shots inside the penalty area: 10 - 2

Shots on target: 7 - 2

Shots off target: 10 - 2

Shots blocked: 8 - 1

Corners: 6 - 5

Passes attempted: 518 - 509

Passes completed: 448 - 452

Passing accuracy: 86% - 89%

Greece troubled the Bosnian defence throughout the entire 90 minutes. Attackers Petros Mantalos, Tasos Bakasetas, Dimitris Limnios and Vangelis Pavlidis were all on top form, displaying excellent mutual understanding as they terrorised the opposing defenders with their energetic play. Masouras, Giannis Fetfatzidis and Efthymis Koulouris continued causing the slow, fatigued Bosnians plenty of problems after they joined the action as substitutes.

If we take the likes of Liechtenstein, Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar out of the equation, the last time when Greece attempted such a high number of shots against a strong team was in the 2014 FIFA World Cup duel against Costa Rica. In that game, the Greeks had 24 efforts on goal, but they lost the ensuing penalty shootout after the Last 16 match had ended level at 1-1.

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image source: to10.gr

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