Greeks honor Baldock with a win over England, Belgium comes back against ten Italians

NOS Football•yesterday, 11:09 PM

The Greek footballers could not have better honored international George Baldock, who suddenly died on Wednesday. At Wembley, the Greeks won 1-2 in the Nations League against England, which played very poorly. Former AZ striker Vangelis Pavlidis was the match winner with two goals.

Italy and Belgium drew 2-2 in an exciting match, while Erling Haaland became Norway’s all-time top scorer with two goals against Slovenia. France defeated Israel 4-1.

With the victory, the concentrated footballing Greeks took the lead in group 2 of the B level of the international tournament. Greece has not conceded a goal in three matches. England, with stars Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer in the starting line-up, achieved little. It was sloppy and looked uninspired.

It already started with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford who was not yet awake in the initial phase. The English keeper simply lost the ball far from his goal in the build-up, after which Levi Colwill prevented a goal with an ultimate sliding slide after a long shot. Moments later, Pickford completely missed an aerial duel. The goal was disallowed for offside, he was relieved to see.

It was no surprise that the Greeks took the lead shortly after halftime. Pavlidis scored after cleverly freeing himself between three defenders. The Benfica striker pulled the black band off his arm, pointed to it, kissed him and, together with his teammates, produced a shirt of the deceased Baldock. Greek fans chanted his name.

Many players who played against England on Thursday evening knew the 12-time international Baldock well.

While England often pressed powerlessly, a second goal by Pavlidis was disallowed in the final phase. Made one by death, it seemed in London, the Greeks remained sharp until the final whistle. They couldn’t do anything against a blow from Bellingham and England seemed to escape after all.

It wasn’t until the 94th minute that it finally came to the Greek side: Pavlidis found the ball at his feet and scored the winning goal.

A step higher, at the A-level of the Nations League, the match between Italy and Belgium also provided plenty of interesting content. Italy was heading for an easy win for a half, until it received a red card and was unable to hold on to a 2-0 lead.

After a memorial video of the recently deceased Salvatore “Toto” Schillaci, the Italians started enthusiastically. After just two minutes it was a hit: Andrea Cambiaso fumbled the ball over the line after the Belgian defense forgot to clear the ball.

Twenty minutes later it was already 2-0: Mateo Retegui scored from the rebound, but half of the goal was thanks to left back Federico Dimarco, who started the attack with a beautifully pressed opening to Cambiaso at the other end.

Nothing happened for the Italians, until the VAR found a strange tackle by Lorenzo Pellegrini not yellow but red. The free kick immediately brought the Belgians back into the game: left back Maxim De Cuyper placed a rehearsed free kick in the corner shortly before half time.

Then the Belgians had the initiative in the Stadio Olimpico. After an hour of play, Leandro Trossard scored the 2-2. The Belgians did not go any further.

Italy holds the lead in group 2 of the A-league, with one point more than France, which defeated scoreless Israel 4-1. Belgium is third, two points behind the French.