Greece strike back to better Belarus

Belarus rode their luck to take a first-half lead in their UEFA European Under-21 Championship Group 1 encounter, but fortune favoured Greece after the break as they secured a comfortable win in Borisov.

Andrei Scherbakov saved a fourth-minute penalty from Giannis Potouridis, with Kostas Fortounis putting the loose ball over, and the Belarus goal was to be the focus of most of the action; Apostolos Giannou shot just wide, Scherbakov denied Aris Soiledis and Fortounis fired one over. However, the home side scored with their first meaningful attack after 40 minutes. Dmitri Khlebosolov's free-kick hit the wall, and though Kostas Lambrou saved from Aleksandr Makas, Oleg Patotski finished from the loose ball.

However, Belarus's charmed life did not continue after the break. First Andrei Lebedev directed Potouridis's cross past his own goalkeeper (56), before the same player found the target from 30 metres without the help of any opponent (67). Within a minute, it was 3-1, Fortounis setting up substitute Apostolos Vellios to put the finishing touch to another sparkling Greek attack. Andrei Zaleski came close to reducing the arrears at the death, but Lambrou pulled off a handy save.