Lyratzis’s reward

He is one of the top performers of this season for PAOK. Lefteris Lyratzis eagerly awaited his chance from Razvan Lucescu and when he got it, he has grabbed it with both hands and is developing into a vital cog in the Romanian coach’s well-oiled machine.

The Double-headed Eagle right-back has seen his efforts, his hard work, and his excellent performances rewarded with a call-up to Greece team for the away friendly games against Romania (25.03, 20:00) and Montenegro (28.03, 20: 00).

He will join Alexandros Paschalakis who is also in the squad selected by coach Gustavo Poyet.

Black and white interest in Europe and beyond

Jasmin Kurtic is an established fixture in the Slovenian national team. The midfielder has been included in his team’s squad for the home friendly match against Croatia (26.03) and the away friendly against Qatar (29.03) that will be held in Doha.

Serbia will also have Andrija Zivkovic with them. The winger will be joining them for their away friendly matches against Hungary (24.03) and Denmark (29.03).

There’s a return to the Romania team for Alexandru Mitrita. The PAOK winger is included for the friendly against Greece (25.03) in Bucharest and Israel (29.03) in Tel Aviv.

Diego Biseswar is also in the Suriname squad for the away friendly match against Thailand (27.03).

There’s also an international call up for PAOK B’s Ismail Ouendraogo, who will be in the Burkina Faso squad for the two friendly games with Kosovo and Belgium on March 24 and 29 respectively.

Finally, Enea Mihaj has endured some misfortune. The Double-headed Eagle central defender was included in the Albania squad for the games against Spain (26.03, away) and Georgia (29.03, away), but he was diagnosed positive with Covid-19 and will remain in Thessaloniki.

Greece Under-21’s gunning for qualification

Christos Talichmanidis and Haris Tsingaras were selected for Greece’s Under-21 team, who aim to be the first in their group and consequently qualify for the final phase of the European Championship. On March 25, Greece face Liechtenstein and on March 29, Portugal. Both games will be held at the «Theodoros Kolokotronis» stadium in Tripoli and will start at 19:00. Note that second place leads to the playoffs.

Also, Andreas Athanassiou was invited to the Cyprus Under-19 team in order to participate in training and the friendly matches with Malta on March 25 and 27.

Under-17’s head for Elite Round

After winning the domestic championship, our little ones – nine in total to be exact – will join up with Greece’s Under-17 squad in the Netherlands and the Elite Round phase. They are Spyros Angelidis, Charalambos Georgiadis, Taxiarchis Filon, Nikos Deligiannis, Dimitris Kottas, Konstantinos Goumas, Alexandros Adam, Giannis Gitersos and Stefanos Tzimas (2006).

On the road to the final phase of the 2021-22 European Championship, Greece’s Under-17 team were drawn in the first group of the Elite Round and they will face the top team in Europe, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Hungary. All games will be played in the Netherlands.

A total of 32 national teams are participating in the Elite Round. From the eight groups formed in the draw, the leaders of the groups will qualify to the finals, as well as the seven best second teams. Therefore, from the Elite phase, 15 teams will be eligible to participate in EURO 2021-22, together with the host country (Israel, May 16 – June 1).

The fixtures are as follows:

Slovakia – Greece: 24/03/2022, 20:00

Greece – Hungary: 27/03/2022, 13:00

Greece – Netherlands: 30/03/2022, 17:00