Northern Ireland’s disappointing history in the competition continued as they were on the wrong end of one of the narrow football scores in the Nations League. Anastasios Bakasetas scored the only goal for the visitors in the 39th minute. Northern Ireland produced yet another flat display. It took two veterans Kyle Lafferty and Niall McGinn to provide the impetus in the last half hour. They could not find the equalizer though as Gus Poyet earned his first win as manager of Greece.
Player ratings
Northern Ireland: Peacock-Farrell (6), Bradley (5), Ballard (5), J. Evans (6), Lane (6), McNair (5), Davis (6), McCann (6), Saville (6), Lavery (5), Whyte (5).
Subs: Subs: McGinn (7), Lafferty (6), D. Charles (6), Hume (6), S. Charles (n/a).
Greece: Vlachodimos (6), Tsimikas (7), Hatzidiakos (6), Mavropanos (7), Rota (7), Bouchalakis (6), Siopis (6), Bakasetas (8), Limnios (7), Mantalos (6), Giakoumakis (6).
Subs: Baldock (n/a), Tzavellas (5), Kourbelis (6), Chatzigiovanis (6), Pavlidis (6).
Man of the match: Anastasios Bakasetas.
Managers Reaction
Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough: “We were a bit timid and within ourselves in the first half. In the second half, we showed a bit more intensity to get forward and give them problems. We changed our shape which made a difference and the impact you look from subs – it happened. It’s frustrating because we couldn’t get the ball away and our first touch was off a little bit and the first half was a training game or the first game of a pre-season.”
Nial McGinn: “The feeling is one of sheer disappointment. As with every campaign we wanted to get off to a positive start but we didn’t test their goalkeeper anywhere near enough. It looked like some of the boys hadn’t played in four or five weeks. We needed to get more balls into the box and you could see how they defended well and saw the game out pretty well towards the end.”
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