A Yiannis Fetfatzidis brace and a Kyriakos Papadopoulos goal on his debut were enough for Greece to stay on top of their Euro 2012 qualifying group with a 3-1 win over Malta in Piraeus on Saturday.
Greece have stayed one point ahead of Croatia, who beat Georgia 2-1 at home on Friday, and are the favourites to snatch the top spot that secures direct qualification to the finals in Poland and Ukraine next year.
The early goal that Greece scored allowed the national team to avoid the nerves they might have had and to produce a spectacular first 35 minutes that gave fans two goals and plenty of chances as the hapless visitors tried to weather the Greek storm.
Yet after the 35th minute the Greek enthusiasm subsided, given the two-goal lead, allowing the Maltese to threaten Greece keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos who had a bad night on his Greece debut.
The team of coach Fernando Santos was lucky to avoid conceding an equaliser at the 60th minute and sealed all three points three minutes later, in what was a key spell in the game.
Greece led after just seven minutes through a swift team move from the right with Giorgos Karagounis, Sotiris Ninis and a pinpoint cross by Vassilis Torosidis to the path of Yiannis Fetfatzidis who scored with ease from the penalty spot.
The second goal came at the 26th minute as a Giorgos Karagounis free-kick found debutant Kyriakos Papadopoulos in the box, and slotted it home to celebrate with tears in his eyes.
Each side had a goal correctly disallowed in the first half as offside, by Dimitris Salpigidis for Greece and Michael Mifsud for Malta.
It was Mifsud, though, who pulled one back for the Maltese nine minutes into the second half as the Greek defence was caught in possession.
Malta came close to an equalizer at the stroke of the hour as Andre Schembri’s shot hit the woodwork.
Greece restored their two-goal advantage at the 63rd minute as a great cross from the right by Salpigidis was spilled by Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg to the path of Fetfatzidis who made no mistake from close range.
Another positive aspect to Saturday’s match was the unexpectedly high turnout that saw about 20,000 fans create a vibrant atmosphere at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
Greece have 14 points, Croatia and Israel 13, Georgia are at nine, Latvia have four and Malta are still without a point.
Consequently Greece’s next match, at Israel on September 2, is crucial for Greece’s future in the group.
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