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Steffen Schmidt - March 21, 2023
Gibraltar vs Greece
EURO Qualification
Date: 24 March 2023, Friday
Kick-off at 19:45 UK / 20:45 CET
Venue: Estadio Do Algarve (Sao Joao da Venda).
Greece did not have any luck with the EURO Qualifications draw as they will need to fight for the top-two finish alongside the likes of France and Netherlands.
Gus Poyet’s men will at least have a nice chance to get off to a victorious start to the qualifying campaign on Friday night when they visit Estadio Do Algarve to take on continent’s minnows Gibraltar.
Greece will enter the tie on a high despite somewhat weaker results in the clashes against Malta and Hungary in November exhibitions.
Poyet has taken the team to the League B in the Nations League as Greece topped the group with Kosovo, Northern Ireland, and Cyprus with five wins in six outings in the process.
Poyet has an exciting attacking duo in the likes of Giorgious Giakoumakis and Evangelos Pavlidis.
The former has been great at Celtic last season before moving to Atlanta United in MLS, while the latter is enjoying a staggering campaign with AZ Alkmaar in the top flight of Dutch football this season.
Gibraltar, on the other side, only have a single player outside of their domestic league and it is midfielder Nicholas Pozo who plays for Cadiz (rarely gets a chance to feature in La Liga).
However, it is worth noting that Gibraltar did manage to keep their net untouched in the back-to-back wins over Liechtenstein and Andorra in friendlies played in November last year.
On another note, they had claimed just one point in six Nations League affairs against Georgia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria beforehand, suffering some tough defeats along the way.
The only question ahead of this tie is the margin of Greece’s victory. We believe it should be higher than two goals which is why the main pick is Greece in -2.5 Asian Handicap at the 1.83 odds.
We also like the 1.61 odds offered for Evangelos Pavlidis to score anytime for the visitors.
