Greece Thrash Clueless Malta With Gekas Hat-Trick
Greece 5-0 Malta
17/11/2007 22:43
With few things at stake, Group C frontrunners and defending EURO
champions
Greece enjoyed a stress-free game, thra****ng Malta 5-0 at the Olympic
Stadium of Athens.
Greece took advantage of a pressure-free environment to utterly thump
Malta
5-0 at the Olympic Stadium, with Fanis Gekas' hat-trick seeing him emerge
as
MVP. Four out of five Greece's goals were scored in an enthralling
second-half but even the first period was a relaxing affair.
Having clinched qualification with two matchdays remaining, Greece had
nothing to worry about. Still, Otto Rehhagel's players seemed obliged to
pay
back their 40,000 fans, who braved the heavy rain to attend the game, with
a
fine display of attacking football.
The reigning champions dominated possession and controlled the match from
early on facing only some weak resistance from the Maltese internationals.
Midfielder Giorgos Karagounis created the first good chance in the
encounter
in the 17th minute when a long range effort tested the reflexes of
visiting
custodian Haber.
Eintracht Frankfurt defender Sotoris Kyrgiakos came close to finding an
opener, too, as his header after a corner went just over the crossbar
before
the visitors replied through Andre Schembri on 20 minutes.
The hosts, however, continued to press forward and eventually managed to
open the scoring three minutes after the half-hour thanks to Fanis Gekas.
Bolton star Stelios Gian****opoulos had initially a header denied by Hogg
but
the Bayer Leverkusen forward took the rebound and slammed home from close
range.
Greece's goal prompted Malta to eschew their passive role, but this proved
fruitless as half time approached.
And with the beginning of the second half, their dreams for a surprise
result fainted as The Pirates killed off the game with two goals in six
minutes.
Captain Angelos Basinas brilliantly chipped the ball over out-of-position
Haber from outside the area and into Malta's net to double Greece's
advantage on 54 minutes. Then Giannis Amanatidis, made it 3-0 when he shot
calmly past helpless Hogg in the 61st.
Gekas added two more - heading home in the 72nd minutes before grabbing
another rebound in the 74th - to further sink the clueless visitors and
cement his status as hat-trick hero.
It was the last official game on home soil for Greece before the finals of
EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, and a fitting end to the qualifying
campaign for the defending champions. Malta, meanwhile, seem to have lost
their recent spark.
Greece (Rehhagel): Nikopolidis; Patsatzoglou, Dellas, Kyrgiakos, Torosidis
(Spiropolous 48); Basinas, Katsouranis, Karagounis (Tziolos 70);
Gian****opolous (Liberopolous 46), Gekas, Amantidis.
Malta (Fitzel): Haber; J. Mifsud, Briffa, Said, Azzopardi; Pullicino,
Pace,
Sammut (Cohen 61), Nwoko; Schembri (Scerri 68), M. Mifsud (Sciberras 78).
Yellow Cards: Dellas 51' - Nwoko 34', Said 60'.
Referee: Sten Kaldma (Estonia).
Michael Paterakis at the Olympic Stadium in Athens
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