GREECE AND AUSTRALIA WIN ONE LEG OF GAMES EACH

Greece and Australia won each leg of two friendly games played.


The Socceroos defeated Greece 1-0 in their first friendly on the back of a 94th-minute Mathew Leckie strike. On the other hand, Greece returned the favour with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday at the Etihad Stadium.

At the Sydney's Olympic stadium, Australia attacked with everything on Saturday. It rained at the stadium which hosted the 38,682 fans who came to witness the first of the two ties. The Aussie’s had 17 shots on target while the visitors could only pull in five. The Socceroos led the entire match but failed to actually put the ball at the back of the net. The match was set to end goalless but the deadlock was broken in the 89th minute, when star substitute Tim Cahill headed in from a corner.

The overjoyed player pulled out his shirt until the referee had to call him to order. As it turned out, the corner had drifted over the byline before swinging back in-field and Cahill had to sheepishly cover up. But then Leckie, on the end of a long passing move, showed superb composure and smacked the game-winner past Kapino.

In the other leg, played Tuesday, Greece won their third game out of 16. From the get go, Greece were in the attack and they clearly meant business. The Australian team were a little loose with the ball and they paid dearly when Greece scored in the eighth minute through Mantalos. They kept with the attacks and were rewarded with another in the 21st minute as Maniatis picked the ball from 60 yards out and sent the ball over the Australian goalkeeper Federici as he was off his line. The scoreline didn’t change through the half but it did in the 58th minute when Sainsbury scored just when Greece where about to score the third. The game ended 2-1 with each team winning a pair.