Late Penalty Lifts Greece To The Knockout Round

The first half did not start out well for Greece in their pursuit of a place in the Round of 16. First of all, they would need to beat the Ivory Coast and hope that Japan would not beat group leader Colombia, who was already qualified for the knockout rounds. That scenario didn't sound so bad right? All they had to do was win. Consider this though, Greece had not scored a single goal in the tournament after their first two matches AND they were without their captain Kostas Katsouranis who had been sent off in their second match with Japan.

Greece did not seem to change their attacking approach even though they knew a win was what they needed. They sat back defensively to allow Ivory Coast to get comfortable in the attack before looking to strike with quick counter-attacks.

They would suffer two big blows in the first twenty-five minutes though having to make injury substitutions. First it was Patagionis Kone who would be subbed after suffering what appeared to be a hamstring injury in the 12th minute, followed by goalkeeper Orestis Karnezi who was dealing with a back injury just twelve minutes later. 

Ivory Coast would continue to ramp up the pressure on the defense but it would be Greece with the first big chance off a counter-attack. Jose Holebas saw his effort from about 20 yards out rattle the crossbar.

The first goal would come in the minutes before halftime from a dumb defensive mistake by the Ivory Coast. Greece intercepted a poor back pass from defender-to-defender which resulted in an odd-man rush towards the penalty area. Substitute Andreas Samaris was fed a beautiful low ball, he chipped the goalkeeper who committed low too soon and the Greeks had scored their first goal of the tournament after 222 minutes of play.

There was more heroics from substitutes as Ivory Coast Wilfried Bony equalized just 11 minutes after coming onto the pitch. The play started with a great run from Gervinho behind the Greek defense. He cut-back a pass towards the penalty spot only to find Bony on the run, Bony slammed the low ball past the Greek keeper to bring the score-line level and put Ivory Coast back in the driver's seat for the second position in the Group,

Jubilation has a funny way of turning to disperse in a moment's notice from our beautiful game and that is exactly what happened to the Ivory Coast who dropped back to defend emphatically with the sweet taste of the knockout rounds nearly to their tongues. The Greeks were pressing on the left side, looking for any space to put a shot on target. Georgios Samaras found a pocket at the penalty spot, he was fed a low ball in perfect shooting position when he was fouled from behind by Giovanni Sio. The Ecuadorian official blew his whistle and pointed to the spot.

Samaras calmly placed his shot to the left side of the keeper just beyond the outstretched fingers of Boubacar Barry. That would be the final play as Vera called for full-time right after the kickoff and Greece would advance to the World Cup knockout round for the first time in history.