Sheffield United forward Veatriki Sarri came off the bench to play the final 18 minutes of Greece’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 qualifier against Montenegro in Athens earlier today.
The 22-year-old was introduced with the scoreline still deadlocked at 0-0 at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium. Greece went on to win the match 1-0 courtesy of Eleni Markou’s goal six minutes from time.
Trailing second-placed nation the Republic of Ireland by nine points ahead of this evening’s fixture against a Montenegrin side who had lost six out of six in qualifying, Dimosthenis Kavouras’ Greek side knew that only a victory would do in Athens.
Greece were the most dangerous side in the first half of the match but they were unable to beat visiting keeper Ivana Cabarkapa. Montenegro began to create more chances after the break with captain Sladana Bulatovic providing the greatest threat to Anthi Papakonstantinou’s goal.
With Greece in need of some game control along with an injection of attacking quality, head coach Kavouras threw on Sheffield United’s Sarri and midfielder Despoina Chatzinikolaou with 18 minutes remaining. Neither player had the opportunity to create a lot in-front of goal themselves but it didn’t matter as Greece grabbed a late winner through Markou.
The result sees Greece move to within six points of the Republic of Ireland but their goal difference is nine worse than Vera Pauw’s side and they still have to travel to group leaders Germany. Greek qualification hopes will officially be ended this month if the Republic of Ireland get a positive result of any kind in the Ukraine tomorrow.
About The Author
