Greece Survive the Group Stage; Advance to Knockout Stage

Four more teams battled it out today to see who would advance into the knockout stages of the World Cup. It was Colombia vs. Japan and Greece vs. Ivory Coast. Colombia already advanced and Japan is eliminated. Greece and Ivory Coast would both advance if they win but if they tied, Ivory Coast would be the runners-up. Group C battled it out pretty good and it seemed like it was a good match for Greece, who took the win and was able to advance to the knockout stage and face Costa Rica.

Things didn’t start out great for Greece. Injuries were taking place; they seemed to struggle in controlling the ball and maintaining possession and Ivory Coast seemed to have the game. In the 12^th minute, Greece had to make an early substitution due to Gkergki Kone pulling a muscle and Andreas Samaris coming in to replace him. About 8 minutes later, the game was stopped due to the goalkeeper Orestis-Spyridon Karnezis pulling a muscle in his back. Treatment was given to him and it seemed like Greece didn’t have to make another early substitution, but during the game Karnezis signaled to the bench that he needed to be taken out. Panagiotis Glykos came in to replace Karnezis. Injuries were not helping Greece and seem like they were going to struggle. About 4 minutes later, Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba had an opportunity to score but as Yaya got through 3 defensive players, he had an open shot but instead passed it to Didier which went passed him and they weren’t able to create anything. In the 33^rd minute, Jose Cholebas had a chance for Greece who was going against a defender of Ivory Coast and the goalkeeper and as he shot the ball, the ball meet the post and allowed the game to continue scoreless. In the 43^rd minute it was Greece that opened the scoring and allowed them to take the lead in the first half. In a mistake created by Cheick Tiote, he kicked the ball too hard which allowed Andreas Samaris to take control of the ball, pass it to Georgios Samaras, who passed it back to Samaris and the substitute was able to create a nice kick into the goal and pass goalkeeper Boubacar Barry.

This gave Greece the 1-0 lead and so far the qualification to the next round but only 45 minutes have passed and the game wasn’t over yet.

The second half was filled with many opportunities for both Greece and Ivory Coast but Greece had more chances in the second half of the game. It seemed like the crossbar just didn’t love the Greeks today. Two times we saw the ball hit the cross bar when both Giorgos Karagounis and Vasilis Torosidis both went for the goal. For Gio it hit the top of the crossbar while for Vasilis it hit the left side of the post. We also saw Jose Cholebas have a chance while he was racing for the shot, but was fouled before reaching the goal box. This gave Lazaros Christodoulopoulos the opportunity of a free kick and he was so close to scoring but went just over the crossbar and kept the game 1-0. At this point, you can tell that the crossbar didn’t love the Greeks and the Greeks seemed to regret not hitting the ball just right to make the lead even bigger. In the 74^th minute we saw Ivory Coast tie the game against Greece in a play that allowed Gervinho to find Wilfred Bony and get the ball pass goalkeeper Glykos and put The Elephants on the scoreboard.

As the game was coming to an end, we saw the hopes of the Greeks running out since the tie would advance Ivory Coast to the knockout stage, but the soccer gods helped the Greeks with one last play or should I say penalty shot. Giovanni Sio fouled Georgios Samaras in the box as Samaras was going for the ball and allowed the Greeks one more chance to take the lead in the 91^st minute. The Elephants couldn’t believe what was happening and the Greeks were celebrating just as the penalty was about to be shot. Samara prepared himself and set up the penalty shot and was able to put it in the net to give the Greeks a 2-1 lead in the 93^rd minute.

The Greeks took a late lead in the game thanks to Giovanni Sio committing the foul in the box and helped them reach the Knockout stage for the first time in team history. As for Ivory Coast, this is the third time they are kicked out of the world cup in the group stage and we wont be seeing anymore of Didier Drogba since this was his last world cup as well.

The Piratikos (The Pirate Ship) will play against Costa Rica on Sunday to see who advances to the Quarterfinals.