Belgium downs Greece, sends it down to third

Belgium ended Greece's unbeaten run in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers on Sunday winning 2-1 in Piraeus.

The result means Greece has dropped to third at the table, one point behind Bosnia, while Belgium has qualified to the World Cup finals. Out of the two home games with Estonia and Belgium Greece has therefore collected just one point.

Featuring three changes from the Thursday game against Estonia (Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Yiannis Maniatis and Andreas Samaris), Greece remained on a 4-5-1 formation that showed coach Michael Skibbe's insistence on winning over the midfield.

Belgium enjoyed most of the possession in the first half at a Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium that was unusually filled to capacity, but the biggest chance of the first 45 minutes fell to Greece: Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois averted a spectacular goal by Costas Stafylidis by fingering the ball...

Continue reading on: