Spirited Greece held mighty Belgium to a home 1-1 draw in Brussels and remained in second place of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying group, trailing the “Red Devils” by two points. Kostas Mitroglou scored the opener in the 46th minute, but Romelu Lukaku came to the home side’s rescue with the equalizer in the 89th. Panagiotis Glykos was an unused sub.

Gojko Cimirot played all 90 minutes, as Bosnia and Herzegovina thrashed Gibraltar 5-0 in Zenica and reduced their distance from Greece to one point. On 28 March, Bosnians play a friendly encounter against Albania in Elbasan.

Yevhen Shakhov watched from the bench as Ukraine lost 1-0 away to Croatia. This defeat left the Ukrainians in third place of their qualifying group, five points behind leaders Croatia and two behind Iceland who won 2-1 in Kosovo.

Youngsters at work

With Efthymis Koulouris as their captain, Panagiotis Deligiannidis as second-half substitute and Lazaros Lambrou on target, Greece U21 prevailed 2-1 over Hungary in a hard-fought friendly match held in Toumba Stadium.

On Monday 27 March, Greece U21s face their counterparts of Poland in yet another demanding encounter.

Marios Siampanis was Greece’s goalkeeper in their first two encounters in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite round. Greece were defeated 2-0 by Ukraine, but then prevailed 4-1 over Finland. They will fight for qualification in their last group match against home side Netherlands who won both their games against Ukraine and Finland.

In Group 2, Cyprus were defeated 2-1 by Germany, with Νikolas Mattheou scoring their only goal. They then lost 5-0 to Slovakia losing all hope of qualifying. Meletis Mišković’s Serbia were also defeated by the Germans (2-0), but their 1-0 win over Slovakia allows them hope –and a victory over Cyprus on the last matchday will enhance that hope.