Greece beat Finland but miss out on automatic Nations League promotion
Knowing they needed to better England’s result over the Republic of Ireland to finish top of the group, Greece made the faster start. Christos Tzolis held off challenges before his shot was deflected just wide in the eighth minute, and from the resulting corner, Konstantinos Mavropanos headed over the bar.
The visitors were dominating possession and putting Finland under all sorts of pressure, but they were failing to create the kind of opportunities that helped them score three unanswered goals in the reverse fixture.
Georgios Masouras was particularly wasteful, while the Finnish defence did well to contain Vangelis Pavlidis up front in a first half that seldom troubled the highlight reel makers.
The omens were not good for the Greeks, given that the away side had never tasted victory in any of the previous 19 meetings between these two teams.
But no one had told that to Konstantinos Koulierakis; he threaded a perfect through ball to Anastasios Bakasetas, who took it in his stride and rifled it past Jesse Joronen to give Greece the lead six minutes into the second half.
One became two just five minutes later when Joronen came out of his area to head clear a ball over the top, but he presented it straight to Tzolis, who lofted the ball over the goalkeeper and a backtracking defence into the empty net.
A comeback for Markku Kanerva’s side never materialised as they failed to register a shot on target in the match, with deflected Teemu Pukki and Benjamin Kallman chances the most they could muster.
A fourth consecutive away win - with exactly two goals scored in each - took the Galanolefki to 15 points, but England’s win meant they remain second in the group.
The Eagle Owls return to League C for the first time since the inaugural UNL and remain without a win since March.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Christos Tzolis (Greece)
