Greece stay bottom after goalless draw on Markarian debut
ByReuters
Published 29/03/2015 at 21:58 GMT
Greece squandered several second-half chances against Hungary in Budapest on Sunday as the two teams played out a 0-0 draw that left the visitors bottom of Euro 2016 qualifying Group F.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Sergio Markarian was taking charge of Greece, European champions in 2004, for the first time and the 70-year-old Uruguayan made five changes from the team that suffered a humiliating 1-0 home loss to the Faroe Islands in November.
Hungary captain Balazs Dzsudzsak stung the hands of Greece goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis with a low shot in the 20th minute, but there was little other goalmouth action in the opening 45 minutes.
Greece began the second half with more purpose and Stefanos Athanasiadis as well as Italy-based midfielders Panagiotios Kone and Yiannis Fetfatzidis went close.
PAOK striker Athanasiadis missed a golden opportunity in the 69th minute when he failed to connect with a cross while Hungary's best chance was a long-range shot in the 88th minute from Adam Pinter.
Karnezis tipped the ball over the bar and substitute Nemanja Nikolic blazed over from the subsequent corner.
The result leaves Greece last in Group F with two points from five games and with only an outside chance of qualifying for Euro 2016. Hungary are third with eight points, behind leaders Romania on 13 and Northern Ireland on 12.
Markarian took over as Greece coach last month after his predecessor Claudio Ranieri was sacked in November after getting off to a terrible start.
He took just one point from the national side's first four Euro 2016 qualifying games, despite inheriting a team that made it to the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil last year.
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