Gekas and Greece dreaming of Latvia repeat
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Article summary
Greece host Latvia in Group F almost a year to the day since Fanis Gekas scored four times against the Baltic nation en route to a 5-2 win in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying.
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Autumn meetings are becoming something of a tradition for Greece and Latvia, who will go head to head for the third time in as many years in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying Group F.
Match background
• Greece's record in four games against Latvia reads W2 D1 L1 (W1 D0 L1 at home).
• The two nations will lock horns again two days shy of a year since their last meeting, when Greece hosted Latvia in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying. Having already beaten Lavtia 2-0 in Riga on 10 September 2008, Greece came out on top courtesy of a 5-2 triumph.
• Fanis Gekas enjoyed those two games against Latvia a great deal, firing both goals in the first encounter and four more in Athens, where two Maris Verpakovskis strikes had put the visitors 2-1 up at the break.
• The teams first met in a UEFA EURO 2000 qualifier in Riga on 31 March 1999, playing out a goalless draw. Latvia improved on that result with a 2-1 victory in Athens on 9 June the same year, when Mihails Zemlinskis hit an added-time winner after Andreas Niniadis had cancelled out Verpakovskis's first-half opener.