The national team of Greece made a winning start in Group 2 of League B in the Nations League by winning against Finland 3-0 at the Karaiskakis stadium on Saturday.
At the debut of coach Ivan Jovanovic on the Greek bench, striker Fotis Ioannidis shined scoring twice.
The hosts seemed wobbly but lucky in the first half, while in the second they imposed their game on the visitors, largely thanks to the introduction at half-time of Yiannis Konstantelias.
The hosts went ahead against the run of play in Athens when Ioannidis robbed Finnish goalkeeper Lucas Hradecky in the 23rd minute, then a great team move was deflected in off Kallman for a 2-0 interval lead.
Ioannidis hit the post after the break but wrapped it up for the hosts with a 76th-minute header from a corner.
New Greece’s coach Jovanovic said he was happy with some elements of the National team’s play, but mainly with the result. “Because it is the first game of a national team, I wanted to start with a win for many reasons and that was the point. We started a competition with a win as I wanted,” he said.
“We have talented and young players as well as experienced ones. Results are what we want. We represent a country. We have to present something good,” he added.
Next stop for Greece is Ireland in the Nations League
Greece, who beat Ireland twice in Euro 2024 qualifying, travel to Dublin for a Nations League rematch on Tuesday.
Ireland began their campaign with a 2-0 defeat to England, in which former Irish internationals Declan Rice and Jack Grealish were on the scoresheet.
Euro 2004 marked the highest point in Greece’s football history when they won the tournament in only their second participation.
Dismissed as rank outsiders before the tournament, Greece defeated some of the favorites in the competition including defending European champions France and hosts Portugal twice. During the tournament, Greece defeated the hosts in both the opening game of the tournament and again in the final.
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition played by the senior men’s national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport’s European governing body.
The first tournament began in September 2018. The four group winners from League A qualified for the finals, played in Portugal in June 2019.
The competition replaces the international friendly matches previously played on the FIFA International Match Calendar, with European national teams engaging in more frequent competitive matches against other European national teams of comparable level.
