Sports
GREECE
Greece Qualifies for 2014 World Cup
by Vasilis
Greece has qualified to its third ever
World Cup finals after beating
Romania 4-2 on aggregate at the
qualifying playoffs, as it followed up
its 3-1 home win last Friday with a
1-1 draw in Bucharest on Tuesday.
The players of coach Fernando
Santos were always in control of the
return leg, in front of 50,000
Romanians and 2,000 Greeks, and
after absorbing the hosts’ pressure
in the first 15 minutes they made
sure the ticket to the finals in Brazil
was in their hands with an away goal
by Costas Mitroglou halfway through the first half. The own goal that Vassilis Torosidis
scored early in the second half was not enough to put the Romanians back into the
game and the Greeks celebrated wildly in the end for the result that will realize a dream
trip and give joy to millions of suffering Greeks.
After letting Romania test the waters in the first few minutes of the game, with some
hastily taken shots that were not a problem for the Greek defense, the visitors started
coming out of their half and had their first chance in the 17th minute with Jose Holebas,
whose shot was palmed away by Romania keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu.
The warning was not heeded, though, and six minutes later captain Giorgos Karagounis
produced a high ball to Mitroglou, who beat the offside trap and then the keeper in a
one-on-one situation for 1-0.
Romania grew frustrated as the game went on and its fans showed their anxiety in
various ways, one of them being a banger that had Sokratis Papastathopoulos fall on the
ground at the end of the first half.
Ten minutes into the second half Torosodis unexpectedly pounced a powerful shot into
the wrong net for a spectacular own goal that Greece keeper Orestis Karnezis was
unable to avert. This was the only way he would be beaten on the night.