Unable To Beat France, Greece Forced To Playoffs For Tickets To Euro 2024

JAKARTA - Greece was unable to beat France and drew 2-2 in the last match of Group B qualifying for Euro 2024 at the OPAP Arena Stadium, Wednesday, November 22 in the morning WIB. Greece was forced to play a playoffs to get tickets to the final round.

Only being able to draw in the final match made Greece fail to get an automatic ticket to Germany. Greece lost to the Netherlands who won 6-0 over Gibraltar.

It was the victory that passed the Netherlands to the final round. They finished second with 18 points. While Greece, who are in third place, only collected 13 points.

Greece still hopes to qualify through the playoffs. They will face Kazakhstan. Furthermore, the winner of the match met Georgia or Luxembourg to fight for a ticket to Germany.

Although he could not win, Greece was the only team to thwart France's perfect points.

Yes, France for the first time played a draw in the qualifying round. Olivier Giroud et al also closed the qualifying round by winning Group B after getting 22 points.

In that match, French coach Didier Deschamps rotated a number of players. Captain Kylian Mbappe is one of the things that doesn't start.

Only three players, Theo Hernandez, Adrien Rabiot and Antoine Griezmann were defended by Deschamps when his team slaughtered Gibraltar 14-0. This is the biggest winning record in the qualifying round.

When Mbappe was blocked, his position was replaced by Randal Kolo Muani who worked hand in hand with Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele to support Giroud.

The result was not disappointing because Muani succeeded in breaking the deadlock. Although Les Bleus controlled the game and excelled in the possession ball, they struggled to penetrate the solid defense of Greece until finally Muani was able to do it.

The forward Paris Saint-Germain broke into Greece's goal after completing an assist from Giroud. The 1-0 score for France lasted until the end of the first half.

Greece managed to get up in the second half. The hosts opened hope after Anastasios Bakasetas' volley from outside the penalty box equalized the score in the 56th minute.

The 1-1 score appears to raise the spirits of Greek players. Evidently, they didn't take long to turn things around.

Only five minutes later Fotis Ioanidis then broke into the French goal guarded by Brice Samba who replaced AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maigan.

Even though they are already 2-1 ahead, Greece still cannot control the game. France is the one who still dominates. Even the control of this two-time European champion ball has reached 65%.

Superior in possession, but France failed to complete a number of chances into goals. The visitors' efforts could only bear fruit when Youssouf Fofana broke into Greece's goal in the 74th minute.

When the match returned to a draw, France completely dominated. Kingsley Coman's forward who came on to replace Dembele came close to turning things around.

His shot almost broke into the host's goal. However, after being reviewed through VAR, the ball had not yet crossed the line so it was declared not a goal.

Mbappe, who also entered the second half replacing Muani, had the opportunity to score a goal towards the end of the match.

However, the PSG star's efforts, which scored nine goals in this qualifying round, still failed. The score did not change 2-2 for both teams until the end of the match and Greece had to play a playoffs.