Greece will look to make a winning start to their World Cup qualifying campaign as they play host to Belarus in Piraeus on Friday night.
Greece has a terrific Nations League campaign, as they did the double over both Finland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as claiming a memorable 1-2 victory at Wembley over England.
However, Ivan Jovanovic’s men lost 0-3 at home to The Three Lions, which subsequently meant they finished below England on goal difference, and were drawn to play a promotion playoff with Scotland.
Despite losing the first leg 0-1 at home, the Ethniki sealed promotion to League A with a 0-3 victory at Hampden, and will be confident of qualifying for next years World Cup.
Belarus consolidated their place in League C in the Nations League, as they finished in third position in their group, two points behind Bulgaria and four points behind group winners Northern Ireland.
The White Wings’ only victory came in a 0-1 success at the bottom side Luxembourg, with Valeri Gromyko’s strike being one of only three they managed from their six group matches.
How the bookies view it: Greece heavy favourites
As expected, Greece come into this clash as heavy favourites, with BoyleSports pricing a home success at just 2/11.
A shock victory for Belarus is a massive 14/1 with the same firm, whilst the draw is 5/1.
Head to head: First competitive meeting
This will be the first-ever competitive meeting between these two nations, with the pair exchanging 1-0 friendly wins in 2006 and 2016, respectively.
Players to watch: Tziolis to find the target?
Christos Tzolis has made an impressive start to the campaign for his club side Club Brugge, scoring three goals – including one of the six in their demolition of Rangers in the second leg of their Champions League playoff tie.
Tzolis also struck three times for his country in their successful Nations League campaign – including the third at Hampden in their promotion playoff – and is an appealing 11/8 at BoyleSports to bag again.
Predicted line-ups:
Greek head coach Ivan Jovanovic appears to have a fully fit squad to choose from, as does his counterpart Carlos Alos.
Greece: Tzolakis, Vagiannidis, Mavropanos, Koulierakis, Giannoulis, Zaferis, Mouzakitis, Karetsas, Konstantelias, Tzolis, Pavlidis
Belarus: Lapoukhov, Martynovich, Politevich, Zabelin, Karpovich, Ebong, Bocherov, Pryschchepa, Lisakovich, Gromyko, Skikavka
Anything else catch the eye?
Pitted in a group with Denmark and Scotland, a home game against Belarus is Greece’s easiest game in Group C on paper, and I fully expect them to be too strong for their opponents.
The key to Greece’s success in their successful Nations League campaign was their excellent defensive record, with the Ethniki keeping clean sheets in both matches against Finland and the Republic, as well as away to Scotland, with four of the five goals they conceded coming against England.
All six of Greece’s Nations League victories featured fewer than four goals, and a repeat of that pays an appealing 5/6 at BoyleSports.
GambleAware