Live commentary: Greece - Ivory Coast 2:1 (World Cup 2014 Brazil, Group C)

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Slideshow World Cup 2014 Brazil Group C, Greece - Ivory Coast

Greece	Tuesday, 24. June 2014 21:00 Clock	Ivory Coast
	2:1

goals
1 : 0	Andreas Samaris 42. / right-footed shot (Georgios Samaras)
1 : 1	Wilfried Bony 74. / right-footed shot (Gervinho)
2 : 1	Georgios Samaras 90. / penalty

90'		Endgame Summary: Greece is the smiling winner of this exciting game. Though not at the highest level, both teams fought with all necessary means to climb up to the round of the last 16 squads. Karagounis, Samaras and his team knew how to use their experience the right way and never got nervous. Waiting for their chances they were lucky enough to earn a justified penalty in the last couple of minutes. Ivory Coast committed two mistakes which should not happen in a game like this. Above all, not in a game like this. The Hellenes are celebrating, the West Africans are down on the ground of the football world. Great players such as Drogba and Kolo Touré are said farewell, Karagounis', Katsouranis or Gekas' World Cup career is extended another time. The Sirtaki is danced now in the eighth finals against the most surprising team of the tournament, Costa Rica.
90'		Full-Time
90'		Goooal for Greece, 2:1 by Georgios Samaras Penalty for Greece! Sio challenges Samaras who is about to shoot the justified penalty himself. The experienced striker buries it without batting an eye.
90'		Big chance for the men in green. A counter-attack is processed much too sloppy by Yaya Touré. Glykos catches this one easily.
85'		Ivory Coast is about to fulfill is home work and take the necessary point with them. Colombia is 4:1 in lead, Japan is gone. The remaining minutes will show who is allowed to continue.
83'		As very last substitute of this match Basel's Sio, another offensive man, substitutes for Gervinho. Despite the expectations, it is not full defense now for the Africans. Lamouchi might want even more.
83'		Substitution (in) Ivory Coast -> Giovanni Sio
83'		Substitution (out) Ivory Coast -> Gervinho
80'		And Greece hits the post again! But in contrast to the other two shots on the bar/post this would truly have been a luke goal! A cross from the right is not aimed well but comes flying as bad surprise towards Barry.
79'		Also Lamouchi makes some corrections in his line up. Old hand Drogba has done a good job and is now called to the bench. In exchange, AS Saint-Étienne's defensive midfielder Diomande is sent to the pitch.
79'		Substitution (in) Ivory Coast -> Ismaël Diomande
79'		Substitution (out) Ivory Coast -> Didier Drogba
78'		Greece brings its last substitute. Of course, this one is a striker. Gekas is the hope of the proud Greek football nation.
78'		Substitution (in) Greece -> Theofanis Gekas
78'		Substitution (out) Greece -> Giorgios Karagounis
74'		Goooal for Ivory Coast, 1:1 by Wilfried Bony Goal by Bony! It is a great move in which Gervinho receives the ball on the left side of the box. Not waiting long, he slips through to the recently entered striker. Bony has a clear sight of the goal and directly finishes a beautiful attack.
71'		Christodoulopoulos shoots close to the goal, but this free kick brings up no harvest either. In addition, Barry would have probably been there.
70'		Dié holds back his opponent and impedes Greece scoring a second one.
70'		Serey Die (Ivory Coast) is shown a yellow card
68'		Second bar for the Greeks! What a full load of power! "Grandpa" Karagounis blasts the ball from almost 30 meters onto the cross bar. Barry would have been left chanceless.
66'		Gervinho is blocked again and again. His control is not tight, his speed to slow. Drogba begins to struggle with his mate.
63'		Karagounis takes the ball and strikes the free kick. But Drogba's shoulders are too strong to let this ball pass by. Karagounis protests and claims a hand play but gives up complaining quickly. This was really no penalty.
62'		Kalou is booked after stopping one of the numerous counter-attacks with an unfair challenge.
62'		Salomon Kalou (Ivory Coast) is shown a yellow card
61'		Clear sign by Lamouchi. Wilfried Bony enters the match to strengthen the offense. Is he the one to make the change?
61'		Substitution (in) Ivory Coast -> Wilfried Bony
61'		Substitution (out) Ivory Coast -> Cheick Tioté
59'		Counteroffense by Samaras who takes the lead in this move. Alone against three Ivorians he passes to the right. There, Salpingidis does not hesitate to smash a bullet against Barry. To save this is a difficult task for the goalkeeper. But he reveals a nice save.
57'		And also Yaya Touré's shot after a good dribbling at the left corner of the box is blocked by a defender.
55'		No break-through for the West Africans. Greece is still looking quite solid at the back.
51'		Lamouchi's team is pinning down the Greeks to their own area. This opens spaces for the Hellenic counter-attacks which always turn out to be difficult for Boubacar Barry and his defenders.
49'		Good shot by Tioté! From 25 meters, he aims too centrally. No troubles for Glykos.
47'		But the first two chances are on the Greek side. At first, a shot is blocked. Then the resulting corner finds the target but Salpinigidis is not able to put pressure behind his header. Also, the angle is much too tight.
46'		Ivory Coast only has to score once in order to make the move to the next round. This is far from impossible.
46'		Second Half begins
45'		Halftime Summary: The match was not at the highest pace throughout the first thirty minutes. Drogba and Company were more active, Greece just took it easy at the beginning. Although Santos' boys needed a goal they didn't attack by hook or by crook. Consequently, patience paved the way to this half time lead. From minute 30 onwards, Karagounis and his team played better and created more opportunities to score. And so did Samaris after an embarrassing mistake by Kolo Touré. The current standings would allow Greece to play in the next round while Ivory Coast and Japan (now 1:1 against Colombia) would be sent home. Obviously, only one single goal would change everything.
45'		Half-Time
44'		Just right afterwards, the men in green have their chance to equalise the score. Yaya Touré runs past three players and enter the box. But Karagounis, Sokratis, and Manolas make a good job blocking the Ivorian super star away.
42'		Goooal for Greece, 1:0 by Andreas Samaris And there's the miracle! Tioté makes a bad a sloppy pass directly to Samaris who plays a fast one-two with Samaras. Getting the ball back, the midfielder from Olympiakos Piräus hits it directly and buries that one. This is the first goal for Greece in the whole tournament, a goal which would allow the Hellenes to play in the next round. Simply incredible...
37'		Drogba is booked after a challenge from behind against Samaris. There was really no need for this hard and unfair tackling.
37'		Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) is shown a yellow card
34'		And Karagounis has the next good chance. A free kick from 20 meters is shot lowly aside from the wall. But this time, Barry Boubacar has no big difficulties and catches the ball.
33'		Greeks pull the trigger! Holebas tries his luck from long-range and hits the crossbar. There would not have been a glance of a chance for Boubacar. And the goal is still shaking.
30'		Especially Ivory Coast is preventing one cross after another. Samaras and Salpingidis never see the ball from close-range.
27'		The pace is still slowing down. Both teams are standing quite firm at the back and no team can be enticed to take some risk.
24'		Already two changes for Greece after just one quarter of the game. This time, goal keeper Karnezis has big troubles and needs to be substituted.
24'		Substitution (in) Greece -> Panagiotis Glykos
24'		Substitution (out) Greece -> Orestis Karnezis
22'		Nice pass from Yaya Touré who is not harmed by Karagounis' and Samaris' challenges at the edge of the box. Drogba gets the ball but is unable to control it. The Africans have better chances, although not excercising the biggest of dangers either.
20'		Both teams are too hectical and unsecure in possession of the ball. There´s a visible lack of rhythm in this game, as well as of big chances. But all works in favor of Drogba and his mates. Greece obviously needs to do more!
18'		Good news for Ivory Coast! Cuadrado has smashed his team ahead against Japan. Hence, Les Eléphant would only need a draw in this match to climb up to the next round.
14'		First nice attacking move by the Hellenes. Salpingidis is patient enough to wait well posted on the corner of the six yard box. But with a risky save, Barry Boubacar keeps the clean sheet not permitting the Greek striker to even touch the ball.
13'		Again, the green dressed Africans are making good advances. Touré dribbles on the right and centres right to Drogba. But he is one meter too far behind and consequently, this is an easy catch for Karnezis.
12'		Kone is forced to leave the pitch due to an early injury. What a loss for Santos, who personally walks Samaris to the battle field.
12'		Substitution (in) Greece -> Andreas Samaris
12'		Substitution (out) Greece -> Panagiotis Giorgios Kone
10'		Really amazing one-touch football! Yaya Touré, Drogba and Gervinho speed up the game playing some nice and direct passes from their own to the Greek box. But Gervinho is not able to pull the trigger - Manolas was too fast and produces a corner. But this doesn't lead to anything.
8'		Both teams do not take lots of risk until now. Waiting and watching what the opponent does seems to be the main task the players are ought to fulfill in the first minutes of the match.
5'		Good cross after a long-range free kick. But Drogba is really everywhere and clears the situation with a header.
4'		Two rather restrained actions, one for Greece, one for Ivory Cost, are seen until now. But both occasions were neither fish nor fowl. No danger for the keepers.
1'		The match has started. Especially for the Touré brothers Kolo and Yaya this will be a very emotional working day. Their brother died last friday. Nevertheless they decided to stay in Brazil and fight side by side in memory of they beloved family member.
1'		Kick-Off
		The crowd is getting loud, the Ecuadorian ref is about to blow the starting whistle. Enjoy, folks!
		Les Eléphants are led by 36-year-old Drogba, who is still in the mood to fight like a lion. The Galatasaray striker replaces Bony in the starting eleven. With the former Chelsea player Drogba, there are two other changes coming up: Kolo Toure enters for Zokora at the back, Kalou joins the starting squad instead of Gradel.
		For these ends, Santos makes three changes, two of them without intention: Karagounis substitutes for the suspended Katsouranis. Mitroglou is injured and makes place for Salpingidis. In addition, Fetfatzidis drops out for Christodoulopoulos. This means, that a restructuring of the strategic line up has not been made: Greece will again play in a 4-3-3 system, this time with Salpingidis as central striker. Though, the best known players are Celtic's Samaras, Roma's Torosidis, and Sokratis from Dortmund.
		Fulham's Kostas Mitroglou hopes for a happy end: "With the hard work we've been putting in and a little luck, the goals will come. The task is simple. We have to win." And Headcoach Fernando Santos demands from his players "To find a way to put the Ivorians under pressure."
		Sparing of enthusiastic words, the Greek selection will try everything possible on the pitch to get to the eighth final. It would be a nice topping for the golden generation of the Southern Europeans, having seen a fruitful era with its start under German coach Otto "Rehakles" Rehagel.
		The Coach of the West Africans, former French international Sabri Lamouchi, underlines the importance of this match for the whole nation: "We are fully focused on the match; we know that victory would allow us to write our names in Ivorian football history. That would be a great achievement and the players are well aware of that." But he also sees the quality of the highly experienced Greeks, stating that "We mustn't forget that Côte d’Ivoire have only played eight World Cup games, which is nothing. There are no guarantees we will make it through: we have to come up with the goods on the pitch against a Greece team with a very solid backline."
		In contrast, both Greece and Japan need a victory AND the loss of points by their direct competitors. And especially the Europeans are not favored by their total goal score from the first two matches (0:3 goals against them). In the end it is clear that Fernando Santos's squad need to win that game as high as possible if they want to take the chance to go further.
		It is clear that the Ivorians have the best chances to continue playing the World Cup. With three points on their account, Japan and Greece are left behind with only one point. Therefore, Drogba and friends could be elevated to the next round with a draw, given Japan does not win against Colombia with a high score. But this is not very likely with regard to the past matches of the teams.
		Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to group C's decisive third match day. The upcoming encounter of the mighty elefants from Ivory Coast against the Hellenic heroes from Greece is prepared to getting started. At 9:00 p.m. this game on fire will be kicked off. Around 11:00 p.m we will know the opponents of Costa Rica and Uruguay. We are not less curious than you are, so let's enjoy the clash together!