Greece will host Spain this Thursday for the seventh leg of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match.
Venue: Olympic Stadium of Athens “Spiros Loius”.
Key Statistics
Greece are unbeaten in the last seven matches they entered as the home team.
They have failed to score just once in their last ten competitive games.
Spain have lost three times in the last ten competitive games.
They have kept just two clean sheets in their last ten games.
Head to head
Greece have won just one of the 11 head-to-head games between both teams. Spain have seven wins, while three games ended in a draw.
Latest Performances in all competitions
Greece: L-W-W-D-L
Spain: L-W-W-W-L
Greece
After losing 2-0 to Sweden in their last World Cup qualifier match, Greece’s are in danger of missing out on their second FIFA World Cup in a row.
The home team come into this game sitting in third place in Group B, four points behind Spain in second place.
With just two rounds of matches left to play, things are getting very tense and the possibility of missing out on the Qatar event is looming large for John van ‘t Schip’s men who must beat Spain to keep alive any chances of qualification. They will be desperate to do just that and in the process get their first win against Spain since 2003.
However, a poor record against Spain in all competition means that they are the underdogs for this tie., while the absence of defender Pantelis Chatzidiakos who received a red card against Sweden means that Schip will have to make do without one of his most trusted players.
Possible starting line-ups
Odysseas Vlachodimos; Dimitris Goutas, Gerasimos Mitoglou, Georgos Tzavellas; Athanasios Androutsos, Anatasios, Manolis Siopis, Andreas Bouchalakis, Kostas Tsimikas; Vangelis Pavlidis, Giorgos Masouras.
Spain
After their disappointment in the UEFA Nations League, Spain are looking to book a place in their 2022 FIFA World Cup this month.
The visitors are occupying the second spot in their group, two points behind leaders Sweden, who beat them in their last three WCQ games.
But Luis Enrique’s side followed up their loss to Sweden with consecutive wins against Georgi and Kosovo and will be looking to make it three consecutive wins in the World Cup qualifiers.
On their way is Greece, who are also desperate for a place in the Qatar showpiece.
However, they need just a point on Thursday to at least secure a playoff spot, but will look to win this game so they can leapfrog Sweden to the top spot.
Meanwhile, Ansu Fati is the only injury absentee for La Roja at this time.
Possible Spain starting line-ups
Unai Simon; Jordi Alba, Pau Torres, Aymeric Laporte, Cesar Azpilicueta; Sergio Busquets, Koke, Gavi; Rodrigo, Pablo Sarabia, Alvaro Morata.
Prediction
Greece 1-2 Spain