Greece on brink of Euro 2012 finals with win over Croatia

Salman Zahoor October 8, 2011 0

Greece on brink of Euro 2012 finals with win over Croatia

ATHENS: Second-half goals from Georgios Samaras and Thoefanis Gekas sealed a 2-0 win for Greece in a Euro 2012 qualifying group F showdown with Croatia that was earlier marred by serious crowd trouble.

The win leaves the 2004 European champions needing just a point from their last group game away to Georgia on Tuesday to clinch their place in next summer’s finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Croatia meanwhile had come into the game in first place, but must now beat Latvia and hope that the Greeks lose in their last match to qualify automatically for the finals.

Anything else and Slaven Bilic’s side will have to settle for a place in next month’s playoffs. The game at the Karaiskakis stadium — home of Greek champions Olympiakos — had been disrupted by trouble in the stands early on, with English referee Howard Webb opting to take the players off the pitch with less than three minutes played as riot police confronted supporters in the away section of the ground.

Flares and seats were thrown from the section containing Croatia fans, and reinforcements of riot police were sent in before the game restarted six minutes later.

The two sets of players struggled to find any rhythm after that, however, and there was little on-field action to talk about in the first-half.

A point would have done the visitors nicely, but Greece eventually found a way through inside the final 20 minutes when Celtic striker Samaras volleyed home from 12 yards after Croatia failed to clear a corner.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Gekas then made sure of the win 11 minutes from the end as he rose unmarked to head a corner past Stipe Pletikosa in the Croatia goal.