Greece look to prolong Malta misery
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
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Greece will look to have a more comfortable ride against the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying Group F minnows than they managed when snatching a 1-0 win in Malta on 26 March.
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Greece will look to have a more comfortable ride in Piraeus against UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying Group F minnows Malta than they managed when snatching a 1-0 win in Ta'Qali on 26 March.
• It looked as if the visitors were going to be frustrated in Malta but a scrambled effort from Vassilis Torossidis after 92 minutes was enough to secure all three points. Prior to that, Greece had fallen foul of Justin Haber's goalkeeping heroics, but they eventually overcame him, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos's 84th-minute dismissal, to run out winners.
• The teams have now played nine times and Malta have lost all four of their games in Greece without scoring. Overall, Greece 's record against Malta reads W6 D2 L1 (W4 D0 L0 at home).
• The countries first met in a 1972 UEFA European Championship qualifier in Gzira on 11 October 1970, when it took a late Michalis Kritikopoulos goal to cancel out William Vassallo's 66th-minute opener. Greece won the return fixture 2-0.
• Malta trumped that 1-1 draw with victory against Greece in a qualifier for the next UEFA European Championship on 23 February 1975. Italian coach Terenzio Polverini led them to a 2-0 win through goals from Richard Aquilina and Vincent Magro. Greece regrouped to record a 4-0 success in the rematch in Salonika on 4 June that year.
• Malta lost 4-0 in Athens in their next UEFA European Championship meeting with Greece on 21 October 1990. However, Pippo Psaila's Malta held Greece to another 1-1 draw on 22 December 1991, with Petros Marinakis cancelling out Stefan Sultana's opener for the home side.
• Greece finally won in Malta at the fourth attempt in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, Angelos Basinas scoring the only goal of the game for the then European champions on 28 March 2007 from the penalty spot.
• Fanis Gekas scored a hat-trick in the rematch as Greece won 5-0 on 19 November that year, taking their aggregate total in home meetings with Malta to 15-0, an average of nearly four goals a game.
• Malta have lost all six of their Group F fixtures and are one of four sides yet to pick up a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying point along with Andorra, San Marino and Wales. Greece top the section and remain undefeated.
