ATHENS. Spain prevails over Greece 1-0 after P. Sarabia scored a penalty (26′). Spain was unquestionably better in terms of ball possession (73%) was among the factors of its victory.
The match was played at the Olympiako Stadio Spyros Louis stadium in Athens on Thursday and it started at 7:45 pm local time. The referee was Szymon Marciniak with the support of Pawel Sokolnicki and Adam Kupsik. The 4th official was Tomasz Musial. The weather was cloudy. The temperature was cold at 11.8 degrees Celsius or 53.19 Fahrenheit. The humidity was 65%.
Match Statistics
Ball possession
Spain had a strong ball possession 73% while Greece was struggling with a 27% ball possession.
Attitude and shots
Spain was more pushing with 77 dangerous attacks and 12 shots of which 3 were on target. This is one of the reasons why Spain won the match.
Greece shot 3 times, 1 on target, 1 off target. Talking about the opposition, Spain shot 12 times, 3 on target, 3 off target.
Cards
Greece received 4 yellow cards (G. Tzavellas, D. Goutas, K. Tsimikas and M. Siopis). On the opposite side, Spain received 2 yellow cards (D. Carvajal and P. Sarabia).
Match Timeline
Standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
After playing this match, Greece will stay with 9 points to sit in the 3rd place. On the opposite side, Spain will have 16 points to sit in the 1st place.
Next matches
In the next match in the WC Qualification Europe, Greece will host Kosovo on the 14th of November with a 0-0 head to head record.
Spain will host Sweden on the 14th of November with a 2-2 head to head record.
Greece – Formation
Greece
90'
67'
Greece started with a 5-4-1 line-up (5-4-1).
The manager John van \’t Schip decided to play with the following team: Odysseas Vlachodimos , Athanasios Androutsos , Dimitris Goutas , Georgios Tzavellas , Konstantinos Tsimikas , Dimitrios Giannoulis , Giorgos Masouras , Manolis Siopis , Andreas Bouchalakis , Petros Mantalos and Vangelis Pavlidis .
The home team had on the bench: Alexandros Paschalakis, Giorgos Athanasiadis, Marios Vrousai, Gerasimos Mitoglou, Dimitrios Pelkas , Sotiris Alexandropoulos, Giorgos Kyriakopoulos, Christos Tzolis , Manolis Saliakas, Dimitris Limnios and Anastasios Douvikas .
Substitutions
Greece made 4 changes: G. Masouras for C. Tzolis (46′), V. Pavlidis for A. Douvikas (46′), D. Giannoulis for D. Limnios (67′) and A. Bouchalakis for D. Pelkas (78′).
Best player: Georgios Tzavellas
As per our analysis, the most impressive player for Greece was Georgios Tzavellas.
His rating is with 24 passes (54% accurate) and 0 key passes. He was won 4 duels out of 5.
Spain – Formation
Spain
26'
Spain started with a aggressive line-up (4-3-3).
Luis Enrique Martínez García played with: Unai Simón , Daniel Carvajal , Aymeric Laporte , Iñigo Martínez , José Luis Gayà , Koke , Rodri , Gavi , Pablo Sarabia , Álvaro Morata and Raúl de Tomás .
These were the players on the bench: Pau Torres, César Azpilicueta, Sergio Busquets , Pablo Fornals , Robert Sánchez, Jordi Alba, David De Gea, Rodrigo, Dani Olmo , Brahim Díaz, Carlos Soler and Brais Méndez.
Spain could not rely on the presence of S. Busquets (injured).
Substitutions
Spain made 5 changes: P. Sarabia for D. Olmo (57′), R. de Tomas for Rodrigo (57′), Gavi for S. Busquets (65′), A. Morata for P. Fornals (65′) and I. Martinez for C. Azpilicueta (89′).
Best player: José Luis Gayà
As per our analysis, the most impressive player for Spain was José Luis Gayà even if he didn’t score the decisive goal.
His rating is with 104 passes (95% accurate) and 1 key pass. He was won 6 duels out of 7. He performed 5 crosses.
Results of the day
These are the results of the day in the WC Qualification Europe.
- Azerbaijan – Luxembourg – 1-3
- Russia – Cyprus – 6-0
- Armenia – North Macedonia – 0-5
- Georgia – Sweden – 2-0
- Republic of Ireland – Portugal – 0-0
- Malta – Croatia – 1-7
- Slovakia – Slovenia – 2-2
- Germany – Liechtenstein – 9-0
- Romania – Iceland – 0-0
- Greece – Spain – 0-1
