Greece is doing Spain a favor

While Spain suffered in Kosovo, another vital match for Group B was being played in Athens and the result could not have been better for Luis Enrique's. Greece beat, well, Sweden to leave Spain with an income of four points over the Swedes. For the most recent results of both teams this 2-1 was a surprise but not for a match that dominated Greece until the last fifteen minutes.

In the first part, Greece looked like the big team and Sweden the little one. The locals had the ball, they arrived more and better than the visitors. Only a spectacular save by Olsen saved Pavlidis' first goal after he made a great move to shake off the defender, after stealing the ball from himself, and go head-to-head.

For the second the goals finally came in. Bakasetas, one of the most active up front, opened the scoring and then a great play by Tzolis left only Pavlidis at the far post to score the second. The VAR had to review the action for several minutes, but it was shown that it was not offside even if the referee canceled it at first. Then, Greece celebrated the goal as if the game had finished and they got out of it in the same way.

Sweden began to carry the weight of the match. It was no longer loose plays by Isak (the most dangerous) or Forsberg that threatened Vlachodimos, but the whole team. Proof of this was the goal that reduced distances, with a very attentive Quaison to collect a rebound after a shot from Forsberg. But the marker did not move any more. Sweden tried to equalize, the last minutes hanging balls desperately, but Greece defended with all the maturity in the world to the joy of the Spanish.