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Having been forced to stay in League C as a consequence of poor performance, Greece had to start its marketing campaign on their quest to be promoted. Following group play Romania, which claimed second place over Hungary and Turkey in a bunch dominated by the Dutch, awaited Greece in a two-legged playoff. Costa Rica claimed its first World Cup knockout stage victory and denied Greece its first by defeating Greece 5-3 on penalties. Greece were subsequently drawn in opposition to Croatia in the play-off round, where they were knocked out over two legs; a 4-1 away defeat set the tone for Greece’s campaign, and in the second leg they drew a clean in a 0-zero stalemate against the Croats to signify the end of their World Cup hopes. Dimitris Salpingidis notched the game winner in Athens, whereas the second leg finished 1-1 in Bucharest. Greece was drawn into Group C with Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and Japan and finally created an extraordinarily related tournament expertise because it did two years prior at Euro 2012. Greece conceded an early aim in their first recreation in opposition to Colombia, but Panagiotis Kone narrowly missed equalizing only one minute after Colombia’s fifth-minute objective.

Swansea Metropolis striker Wilfried Bony equalized for Ivory Coast within the 73rd minute. In the primary minute of stoppage time, Ivory Coast striker Giovanni Sio obstructed a Samaras shot by clipping him from behind within the Ivorian penalty space, leading to a Greece penalty kick which Samaras converted with 30 seconds remaining in the game, prompting wild celebrations in Greece. To stave off the risk of elimination, the Greece wanted to earn no less than some extent in their second match with Japan, who sat alongside them at the underside of Group C. The task grew more troublesome as soon as captain Kostas Katsouranis acquired two yellow cards, lowering Greece to 10 men within the 38th minute. The despondent Romanian facet failed to attain in this match, with Florin Andone placing the put up within the 76th minute. An early injury to midfielder Panagiotis Kone brought on younger Olympiacos midfielder Andreas Samaris, who would score his first international goal after intercepting a poor again-cross by an Ivorian defender. The last time the two sides met in late 2011, Romania got here into Greece and dealt Fernando Santos his first defeat as Greece manager in his 18th recreation at the helm.

Greece wanted a win within the last game against Slovenia at dwelling to realize promotion to League B. The match ended on 0-0, with Greece failing to promote a second consecutive time, regardless of being unbeaten and having conceded just one objective. Greece reversed the prior 3-1 result of their favour this time, scoring every aim through skillful one-contact passing and ending. In Could 2016, the CAS present in Gibraltar’s favour and ordered that FIFA put Gibraltar ahead for FIFA membership, which might permit Gibraltar to participate within the qualifiers if membership was granted. They subsequently have been put into the Group B for the Euro 2024 qualifiers along with the Netherlands, France, the Republic of Eire, and Gibraltar. The Galanolefki secured promotion to League B by topping the group forward of Kosovo, Northern Ireland, and Cyprus. In earlier years solely these nations belonging to the primary Class of European ladies’s football had been able to qualify, with a system approximating promotion and relegation between qualification tournaments operating. Greece gained and misplaced three video games each to these opponents altogether, and only finished third within the Nations League and was unable to promote to League B when the UEFA revised the format. In the ultimate three games Greece achieved successive victories.

Greece’s qualification campaign for UEFA Euro 2020 commenced with the group being positioned in Group J. Due to disappointing outcomes, John van ‘t Schip decided to not call-up among the leading members of the squad, equivalent to Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Kostas Manolas for his or her final matches. Trailing 1-zero but handed an advantage by the dismissal of Costa Rican Óscar Duarte, Greece compelled extra time by means of a Sokratis Papastathopoulos equalizer ten seconds into stoppage time. Navas thwarted a number of opportunities for Greece throughout the 30 minutes of extra time and saved Fanis Gekas’ penalty in the game’s concluding penalty shootout. Trailing 2-0 within the 63rd minute, Fanis Gekas’ header from six yards struck the crossbar for Greece’s finest probability of the match. A 2-1 residence win over Sweden stored the hopes for qualification alive, and was followed by a 2-0 away win towards Georgia. But after missing a number of possibilities, England found themselves behind after 20 minutes of play when Germany scored of their very first attack (Birgit Prinz), and immediately scored a second-a long-range shot from Melanie Behringer to go 2-0 up. As Group C runners-up Greece was paired within the round of sixteen with Group D shock winners Costa Rica, who won their first-ever World Cup group stage ahead of former world champions Uruguay, Italy and England.