Greece vs New Zealand
Georgios Kamaras Stadium will host an international friendly between Greece and New Zealand on Saturday. This will be the first back-to-back friendly for the All Whites against a team in Group B of the Euro 2024 qualifiers, as they’re set to face off against the Republic of Ireland after their bout with Greece.
Expect a lot of International Friendly 2023 highlights between these two clubs as they both bolster their games into formidable forms for their respective competitions. New Zealand aim to improve their FIFA rankings, while Greece will take advantage of a worthy warm-up opponent for their ongoing Euro Qualifiers.
Read more below as SBOTOP presents a preview of this highly ranked international friendly.
Talking Points
Greece keep EURO Qualifiers interesting
Group B features football juggernauts from France and the Netherlands. Both clubs are in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings and are the favourites to come out of the pack as the first and second placers, respectively. Gus Poyet, on the other hand, is keeping it competitive as his team ties the Netherlands with 12 points in the group table.
Both the Netherlands and Greece need to be spotless from this point on if they want to emerge as the second nation that will come out of their group with an automatic qualification. But it will be a tall order for Greece, especially because they’ll have to beat a formidable France team on Match day 10 to keep their hopes alive.
Greece ended the Republic of Ireland’s hopes for automatic qualification at the Euro 2024. Last month, Gus Poyet’s squad had an eventful Euro 2024 qualifying match by defeating a disgruntled Ireland squad, who can’t seem to get any kind of momentum in this year’s campaign. After seven games, Stephen Kenny’s team has only won two games, tallying a total of just six points. This lackluster performance in the qualifiers places them second to last in Group B, ahead only of a winless Gibraltar squad.
New Zealand struggles to find consistency in 2023
The All Whites dominated their World Cup qualifying matches last year by staying undefeated in their three matches and topping Group B with nine points. Despite their respectable campaign last year, New Zealand have been struggling to gain momentum and find consistency this year.
Instead, they’ve been bolstering their form by participating in numerous friendly bouts against opponents who are typically getting ready for a big tournament or qualification matches. In fact, Euro 2024 group rivals Greece and the Republic of Ireland will take a crack at New Zealand one after the other to warm up for their European Championship qualifying campaign.
With the number of friendlies under their belt this year, New Zealand’s International Friendly 2023 odds should be generous even when facing tougher opponents.
The All Whites suffered a 2-0 clean sheet against Australia in their most recent matchup before tallying a 1-1 draw against DR Congo. The only friendly they had won were against China, where they ended a seven-game scoring drought, besting China in a 2-1 victory in Wellington.
History
These clubs have yet to face each other, and their meeting at Stadio Georgios Kamaras will be a breath of fresh air for players and fans alike.
In recent form, Greece have lost three of their last five matches since June of this year. They fell to France in what was a really competitive match that ended in a 1-0 score line, then they got swept by the Netherlands twice, failing to score on both occasions.
Gus Poyet’s squad struggles against higher-ranking teams, but they get the job done against weaker teams with ease. They showcased the Greek brand of football spectacularly against a weaker Gibraltar team when they faced each other for the EURO Qualifiers, where Greece stomped on their opponent with a clean sheet of 5-0.
Meanwhile, New Zealand is not faring well in their region, as they’ve tallied a lacklustre record against rival nations this year. They’ve won their first match of the year with a 2-1 victory over China at Sky Stadium in March.
Then, they edged out Qatar at Generali Arena in what was a very competitive matchup. Stamenic scored the only goal of the game early in the first half to give New Zealand the lead. The match got cut short after a Qatari player allegedly made a racist comment to defender Michael Boxall. The match ended with a 0-1 New Zealand lead.
Just like Greece, New Zealand also struggles to keep up with higher-ranking foes. They were swept by Australia at Gtech Community Stadium last month with a score line of 2-0. H. Souttar (13′) and J. Irvine (76′) were all it took to hand New Zealand a 2-0 clean sheet defeat.
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