U21s end impressive campaign with a win

Greece U21 side ended their qualifying campaign for the U21 Championships in Sweden with a 1-0 win over the Faroe Islands in Greece. The win was bitter sweet, after Greece had already learned they would not be making the trip to Sweden this coming June. Despite missing out on the finals, Greece’s youth impressed with impressive results against group leaders Italy, and runners up Croatia.

In Tuesday’s encounter with the Faroese, Greece took control of the game early on. Lazaros Christodoulopoulos looked certain to continue his scoring run with the U21 side, but the once capped Greece-international only managed to hit the woodwork.

Greece was back at it again only moments after the restart; this time Antonis Petropoulos was the culprit. The Panathinaikos forward headed in an accurate cross from Ioannis Papadopoulos, to give Greece a deserved 1-0 lead. The home side continued to dominate the game, but like many times throughout their qualifying campaign, Greece came up unlucky. More frustration settled in at Kesariani when Michalis Pavlis duplicated Christodoulopoulos’ feat from the first half. The AEK prospect latched onto an error by Faroese goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen, but the red-faced keeper was rescued by the upright again.

Greece finishes the qualifying round in third place; six back of Italy, and four back of Croatia. As group winners, Italy will progress to the finals; however, Croatia were unable to crack the list of the top four runners up and – like Greece – will see their tournament aspirations come to an end. Albania and Azerbaijan are yet to play their final group match, but the encounter will be strictly for pride. The Albanians sit seven points behind Greece. The Faroe Islands finished with four points to their name, and will finish no higher than fifth, but could see their rank slip to the foot of the table if the Azeris are successful against Albania on Wednesday.

Greece 1-0 Faroe Islands
Petropoulos 55’

Yellow Cards:
Greece – none.
Faroe Islands – Nielsen 59’, Poulsen 89’

Greece (Nikos Nioplias): Vellidis, Maniatis, Siontis, Oikonomou, Ioannidis, Papadopoulos, Marinos, Rikka, Mitroglou (69’ Pavlis), Christodoulopoulos (77’ Dimoutsos), Giantsis (51’ Petropoulos).

Faroe Islands (Hedin Askham and William McLoud Jacobsen): Gunnar Nielse, Justinussen, Olsen (76 R. Poulsen), Dam, Hanssen, Vatinhammar (90’ R. Jacobsen), Olavstovu (85’ Dalbud), P. Poulsen, K. Jacobsen, Gudmund Nielsen, Lambanum.