The Greek national team made history on Thursday night with Ivan Jovanovic's players managing to beat England 2-1 at Wembley for the Nations League, despite the fact that their teammate George Baldock had suddenly passed away 24 hours earlier.
This was England's first defeat against Greece and their first defeat in an official match at Wembley, with Jovanovic becoming the first Greece manager to win three consecutive games and the first to beat a top-five team in recent 5 years.
The Greek internationals dedicated their victory to George Baldock with Odysseus Vlachodemos writing "for you George" in his post on X and Lazaros Rota telling the camera "Georgi for you".
The moment of dedication to Baldock
We spoke too early, BBC Sport admitted after Pavlides' second goal gave Greece their first victory over England at men's national team level.
"The most bittersweet, heroic victory for the Greeks" wrote the Guardian immediately after the match, in its online edition, as a comment in the description of the match, talking about the Greek domination at Wembley:
The main protagonist of the Greek team was Vangelis Pavlidis who scored both goals in the 49th minute and in the 4th minute of stoppage time, while in between Jude Bellingham equalized in the 87th minute.
After the first goal, in fact, Vangelis Pavlidis took off the black armband and raised it in the air, dedicating the goal to Baldock.
The match
The match started with a great save by Odysseus Vlachodimos on a Bellingham shot from the height of the area. In the 11th minute they had a double phase for our national team due to incredible "blunders" by Jordan Pickford! Initially the Everton keeper came out of his area and didn't clear the ball, Bakasetas also stole a shot, but Colwill saved on the line. From the corner that was executed and Kourbelis' header, Pickford caught "air" on his way out and Mavropanos scored, but he was in an offside position.
The biggest chance for England was lost by Palmer, who received Bellingham's ideal assist in the 23' but shot menacingly wide. In general, in the first half the Greeks managed to respond excellently to the English pressure, constantly "building" attacks from the last line of defense and avoiding panic moves. They also had the big moment with Bakaseta on Pickford's mistake and were generally excellent on the Wembley grass.
And in the 49th minute, a historic phase took place.
Pavlidis took the ball from Koulierakis in the area, surrounded by 4 English defenders. With excellent feints, he "danced" at them and sent the ball into Pickford's corner, scoring the first goal of the Greek national team at Wembley. Immediately, the players took to the bench and held up shirts bearing Baldock's name, to a standing ovation, even from the disappointed home fans.
In the 61', Watkins in his first contact with the ball missed from a very advantageous position, with England increasing the pressure, but our internationals responding in an exemplary manner. In the 83' it was canceled as a borderline offside goal by Pavlidis, which would have sealed the triumph. Unfortunately, four minutes later a wonderful shot by Jude Bellingham from the semi-circle of the area made it 1-1. A result that would certainly be a great success for Greece, which, however, had every right to feel that it deserved something more.
And he got it! In the 4th minute of stoppage time, Pavlidis took advantage of confusion in the home team's area and with a diagonal shot gave our national team the biggest victory of the last 20 years.
Source: protothema.gr
