Greece vs Republic of Ireland Preview

Greece will look to make it back-to-back wins in this international break window when they host Ireland in their fourth game of the Nations League (B).

Greece’s last outing was an emotional one for all involved after the passing of their former player, George Baldock, who died suddenly this week at the age of 31. With the pain still fresh in their memories, Greece travelled to England and came away with a famous 2-1 win.

Vangelis Pavlidis, the scorer of the late winner, emotively stated that the team “gave everything” in their teammate’s memory, continuing what’s been a perfect start to this Nations League campaign (W3). Their maiden campaign in League B of this competition is, therefore, off to the perfect start and things should only get easier on home soil where they’ve lost just once in the Nations League at any level (W7, D2).

A near-perfect H2H record (W5, D1) against upcoming opponents Republic of Ireland suggests the good times aren’t about to end, especially as they’ve kept five clean sheets in that run – including a 2-0 win in September’s reverse fixture.

Meanwhile, while Greece made a perfect start in the Nations League, Ireland had a wobbly start but the visitors did record their first win last time–a 2-1 win over Finland.

That win was their first-ever Nations League success on the road (D3, L5) and was also the first time the Boys in Green came from behind to win a competitive match in eleven years. Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes it will “help confidence” in his squad ahead of their trip to the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.

The challenge for Ireland now is to string together back-to-back competitive away wins for the first time since November 2021, though stiffer opposition certainly awaits, considering those successes came against Azerbaijan and Luxembourg. In truth, achieving such a feat would be a shock no matter the venue as Ireland has never won successive Nations League matches since the tournament’s inception.