Russians send former champions Greece tumbling out

Greece 0 Russia 1: experienced Greek goalkeeper chases after long cross and allows Sergei Semak to score the only goalA RUSH of blood to the head of the veteran goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis gave Russia the only goal last night and sent Greece, the surprise European champions four years ago, out of Euro 2008.



Konstatin Zyryanov’s third international goal kept the Russians in with a chance of qualification – and the Greeks nearly kept a faint interest in the tournament themselves, but Angelos Charisteas’s effort after 87 minutes was ruled out because substitute Fanis Gekas had been caught offside.



Both teams seriously disappointed in their opening games, and both, unsurprisingly, made changes. The Greeks, still looking for a striker who could do real damage, chose the big AEK Athens centre-forward Nikos Liberopoulos to lead their attack, while an interesting inclusion by the Russians was the fast midfielder, the slender Dmitri Torbinski.



The Greeks, who shocked football by winning in 2004 under the wily managership of Otto Rehhagel, showed none of their old defensive solidity and on 34 minutes gave away a slightly farcical goal when the highly experienced 36-year-old Nikopolidis went rushing ludicrously out of his goal chasing a long cross to his left, only for Sergei Semak cleverly to hook the ball over him, enabling Zyryanov to shoot into an unguarded goal.



Russia got their big blond striker Roman Pavlyuchenko fit, even though their Dutch coach Guus Hiddink would have preferred to deploy Pavel Pogrebniak of Zenit St Petersburg, but Pogrebniak insisted on having a knee operation in Munich, where he reportedly hopes soon to be joining Bayern.



In the first 20 minutes, there were a couple of near things. First Russia’s Diniyar Bilyatletdinov got over a cross that was met by Pavlyuchenko, but Nikopolidis turned the ball over the top. That was on 13 minutes and seven minutes later Greece retaliated. A free kick from the left by Angelos Basinas should have been exploited by the head of Charisteas, a notable scorer four years ago, but he failed embarrassingly.



Russia’s central defence in their previous game was shaky, not least Dennis Kolodin, who had a torrid time against Spain’s Fernando Torres. Unexpectedly, he kept his place, while Roman Shirocov was replaced by Sergei Ignashevich. The Greeks brought Christos Patsatzoglou into left midfield but lost the experienced right-back Giorgios Seitaridis, a hero of 2004, on 40 minutes, replacing him with Giorgios Karagounis.



After half-time Russia made a series of good chances, though none was put away. Pavlyuchenko twice came close. One shot was confidently taken by Nikopolidis and the second went just wide. This was followed by a crisp strike from Karagounis that brought a save from Igor Akinfeev in the Russian goal.



After 65 minutes clever work by Yuri Zhirkov, a natural winger operating at left-back, and Pavlyuchenko created a chance that Bilyaletdinov should really have put on target. The Russian defence was substantially better than the confused, erratic rearguard they deployed in their opening game and apart from Karagounis’s one strike, the Greeks were hardly threatening.



A disappointed Rehhagel said: “Sadly we couldn’t make use of the chances we had and contributed a great deal to the Russian goal, which was unnecessary.”



“Everyone fought hard for a good result,” said Hiddink.



Times Online