GREECE BEAT NORWAY

The Greece national football team has defeated Norway in a friendly match by 3-2 at Oslo. A large number of Norway fans were present in the stadium to watch their favourite players perform on the field, but, they would have been hugely disappointed at the end of the day. The Norway players fought hard, but, they weren’t able to stop Greece from winning the match. The Greece players held their nerves during the vital moments of the match and secured a victory. The goalkeeper of Norway, Rune Almenning Jarstein, performed very poorly in the match. He could have easily stopped two goals. But, he looked completely out of touch. His performance was one of the main reasons of Norway’s defeat.

Earlier, the manager of Norway, Egil Drillo Olsen, decided not to include Eikrem in the starting XI which was a bit surprising. The Greece players were on attack right from the beginning of the match. The Greece team managed to take the lead in the 7^th minute of the match when Vasilis Torosidis smashed a powerful cross which should have been easily stopped by Jarstein, but, the Norwegian goal keeper missed an easy opportunity to stop the ball and Greece got ahead by 1-0. Kyriakos Papadopoulos doubled the lead of Greece in the 11^th minute. Papadopoulos got through the Norwegian defender Hangeland and beat Jarstein with a brilliant header. Just 2 minutes later, Hangeland brought Norway back into the match with a deflection straight into the right hand corner of the post. There were no more goals in the first half and at the end of the first half; Greece was ahead by 2-1.

Greece got ahead by 3-1 in the 56^th minute of the match when Jarstein made another big mistake. Kostantinos Mitroglou, who had come to play as a substitute, smashed a powerful shot, but, that was stoppable. Jarstein jumped to stop the ball; the ball touched his finger tips and went straight into the goal post. John Arne Riise made the match interesting by scoring Norway’s second goal in the 75^th minute of the match. Nordtveit set up the goal for Riise who gave the finishing touch with a fantastic volley. The Greek players didn’t let the Norway team score the leveller in the remaining time and won the match.