Sweden knocks down Greece’s hopes for a direct World Cup qualifier
Greece’s winning celebration has been cut short by Sweden, after being beaten 2-0 on Tuesday.
While Sweden has reached the top of World Cup qualifying group B with 15 points, Greece will train to desperately try to catch up in November.
Greece seemed to have a good start to the match, but the assistant referee ruled out an early goal by Giorgos Masouras for offside. Masouras also lost another chance on goal when he hit a post while Vangelis Pavlidis headed from the crossbar just before half-time.
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With a zero result, both teams were determined to make better progress and Sweden came out as a better team.
Alexander Isak was fouled in the box by Konstantinos Mavropanos, which gave the Swedes a chance at penalty. Emil Forsberg took the shot and converted it to Sweden’s 1-0 lead in 59 minutes.
Ten minutes later, Isak came back to add another goal to the Swedish point and took advantage of a dubious Greek defense before rounding the goalkeeper to take home the ball.
Greece have a good month to train before meeting Spain in Athens on November 12 at 06:45 (AEDT).
CYPRUS DRAWS 2-2 WITH MALTA
Cyprus were able to ease the pain somewhat from Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Croatia, after taking on Malta on Tuesday and ending in a 2-2 draw.
Although Cyprus does not have a good chance of getting past these qualifiers, their mood is still strong.
Fotios Papoulis started the first goal of the match just six minutes in, which gave Cyprus a 1-0 lead at half time. the second half saw Malta back and Zach Muscat equalized for 53 minutes.
The Cypriot striker Pieros Sotiriou took back the lead for his team and placed the ball between the posts in the 80th minute. Although the game seemed to be in the bag for Greece’s neighbors, Jurgen Degabriele turned the tables for Malta again and sealed the equalizer eight minutes into time.
Cyprus travels to Russia on November 11 to play against their hosts.