Greeks are not giving up after ‘unfair’ outcome at Hampden
Greek tragedies are music to Scotland’s ears in this World Cup qualification campaign. The message from their camp was straightforward after losing 3-1 at Hampden Park. “The result was very unfair,” said their captain Tasos Bakasetas.
Greece dominated proceedings in Glasgow for the best part of an hour but quickly unravelled after Kostas Tsimikas’ opener. Their lead only lasted two minutes when Ryan Christie levelled, and then Scotland kicked on with goals from Lewis Ferguson and Lyndon Dykes. The visitors nearly found an equaliser through Konstantinos Karetsas, who was denied by a fine Angus Gunn save, and their striker Vangelis Pavlidis missed a sitter early on. It was not their night.
This is a supposed golden generation for Greek football, but the reality for them is if they lose to Denmark in Copenhagen on Sunday and Scotland defeat Belarus, they cannot finish in the top two. There is no margin for error if they want to reach next summer’s finals in the Americas.
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“We could have scored earlier because we had some chances,” said Bakasetas. “We played an excellent game. We didn’t get threatened, we created chances, we had possession, control, everything. But sometimes these things happen in football.
“We scored a goal at the beginning of the second half then we gave them a goal, then a second goal and then the third goal. That was the most difficult thing but I think they didn’t threaten the game at all. The goals we conceded were counter-attacks.
“It’s not over yet. We are looking at the next game which is very important and very complicated for us. We’ll try to win because we’re in the process of challenging the World Cup. We can get three wins in the next three matches. We have to move forward, this is life.”
Young Greece goalkeeper gets backing
Their night at Hampden was compounded by a poor piece of goalkeeping by 22-year-old Konstantinos Tzolakis, who let the ball squirm out of his grasp in stoppage time to allow Dykes to net the third. Bakasetas rallied round the Olimpiacos stopper.
“We all made mistakes – I made a mistake too,” the midfielder continued. “We’re not crazy now, these things happen in football. It happens to all of us, it’s a game of mistakes. The matter is over. He’s a fantastic kid and that’s all.”
Greece manager Ivan Jovanovic echoed his players’ sentiments ahead of their trip to the Danish capital. After a strong start in beating Belarus 4-1 in their opening match, the Greeks lost 3-0 to Denmark in Piraeus and need a positive result on their travels.


“It’s simple,” said Jovanovic “If we want to continue to keep our chances alive, we need to win the next three matches.
“The two defeats against Denmark last month and Scotland today leave us behind in our chances to qualify. In the next three days, aside from getting the players to rest, we also have to come up with a gameplan to win the next match. We look forward to the next one.
“We didn’t make many mistakes on Thursday. We simply made every mistake we could. We made some lapses in concentration from two set pieces, which gave Scotland a goal as well and a chance to be in the game. We didn’t make many mistakes in the match, but the ones we did cost us heavily.
“It’s a goal [the World Cup] that can be achieved. We all need to find the energy going forward to get a result on Sunday, to give us a chance to go into next month’s matches.”