On June 24, in the match Greece - Cote d'Ivoire at the football world championship in Brazil, the fate of the second ticket to the playoff stage was decided for the teams of the Quartet S. Africans to continue the struggle in the tournament, a draw was arranged, and the Europeans only needed a victory.
The game started at a good pace. Both teams tried to pass the center of the field as soon as possible and threaten the opponent's goal. It should be admitted that the Greeks looked better in the first half of the meeting. They had more meaningful attacks on the opponent's goal.
We can say that the game was on a collision course, and the Europeans were more dangerous in counterattacks. In one of them, Holebas shook the crossbar of the African goal with a beautiful blow. The Greeks lacked quite a bit before a goal. However, fate returned the favor. At the 42nd minute, the gross mistake of the Ivorian defender led to the fact that Samaris went to a rendezvous with the Ivorian goalkeeper. It did not cost the Greek to open the score in the match. The Europeans came out ahead 1 - 0. The score on the scoreboard did not change before the break.
In the second half of the meeting, the Ivorians tried to look more active, however, the Greeks also improved in discipline and organization of the game. The Europeans got good attacks. In one of them, the crossbar again rescues the Africans. It was at the 68th minute. Until that time, the Greeks did not use a number of scoring chances. But, as you know, if you do not score, then you miss it yourself. And so it happened.
Wilfried Boni equalizes the score after 74 minutes after a good quick attack from the Ivorians. A 1 - 1 draw is already taking the African team to the 1/8 finals of the soccer world championship.
However, the Greeks had their own man in the form of the chief judge. At the fixed time, the chief referee of the match assigns a penalty to the African team. Samaras approaches the ball and takes the Greeks to the playoffs. After a very controversial episode with the appointment of penalties, the Greeks snatched a 2 - 1 victory in the last minutes of the game. The moment of violation will still cause a lot of controversy.
The Greeks leave the Ivory Coast behind the tournament and advance to the 1/8 finals. The rivals of the Europeans will be the national team of Costa Rica.
