Gustavo Poyet’s tenure as coach of Greece kicked off with two friendly games. Greece prevailed 1-0 away against Romania, but were defeated 1-0 by Montenegro. Lefteris Lyratzis played 75 minutes in the game against Montenegro, making his debut with the senior national team. Alexandros Paschalakis was on the bench.

The Serbian national team, with Andrija Zivkovic in the starting line-up and being replaced at half-time, beat Hungary 1-0, while losing 3-0 to Denmark in friendly matches.

There were friendly draws for the Slovenian national team, 1-1 against Croatia and 0-0 against Qatar. Jasmin Kurtic played in both matches.

Diego Biseswar started in Suriname’s friendly with Thailand. The PAOK midfielder played for 45 minutes, with his country suffering a 1-0 defeat, while Alexandru Mitrita played for 62 minutes in Romania’s friendly loss to Greece.

Regarding the national team appearances by PAOK B players, goalkeeper Ivo Marovic played in the first friendly match of Montenegro’s Under-19 side against Bulgaria, which they lost 1-0. Ismaila Ouendraogo watched Burkina Faso’s two friendly matches from the bench, against Kosovo – which they lost 5-0, and against Belgium, in which they were defeated 3-0.

Greece Under-21s still have hopes

A 4-0 victory over Liechtenstein and a heavy defeat (the first after seven games), by Portugal (4-0) was the outcome for Greece’s Under-21s, who are now in second place in the group with 17 points, behind leaders Portugal who have 19 points. In the finals of the 2023 European Championship, apart from the top team in each group of course, the best second-placed team qualifies automatically, while the other eight teams who finished second face off in the play offs. Greece and the Dutch are currently the best runners-up in the groups so far.

In the match against Liechtenstein, Charis Tsingaras was in the starting line-up and was replaced in the 63rd minute, while in the game against Portugal he also played a full 90 minutes. Christos Talichmanidis did not get his gloves dirty.

Greece Under-19s fail to qualify

Greece’s Under-19 side failed to qualify for the final phase of the 2021-22 European Championship, as they ended up finishing third in the group after recording three draws in the group of the Elite Round phase.

In the 1-1 draw with Slovakia, Greece went ahead with a penalty converted by Georgiadis, while Angelidis, Georgiadis, Goumas, Filon, Kottas, Adam and Gitersos started. Tzimas also featured as a 60th-minute substitute. Then followed a 1-1 draw with Hungary. Greece took the lead again, this time with a goal by Gitersos from Goumas’ assist, but the Hungarians equalized in added time. Angelidis, Georgiadis, Deligiannis, Kottas, Goumas, Gitersos (replaced on 69 minutes by Tzimas) and Filon all appeared. Finally, in the 0-0 draw with the Netherlands, Angelidis, Filon, Goumas, Kottas, Adam, Deligiannis, Gitersos and Tzimas all started.