Defender Dinos Mavropanos played the full 90 minutes as Greece suffered their first 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying defeat against Denmark at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium on Monday night.
The 3-0 home reverse means they have been leapfrogged by Brian Riemer’s Danes and Scotland in UEFA Group C, with Greece third with three points after their 5-1 rout over Belarus on Friday.
After a goalless opening half-hour, Brentford’s Mikkel Damsgaard set De Rød-Hvide on their way on 32 minutes, and just after the hour mark, Barcelona’s Andreas Christensen added Denmark’s second when he curled an effort past Konstantinos Tzolakis and into the bottom corner.
The Danes' third of the evening had a hint of Manchester United about it, with Patrick Dorgu supplying the assist for Rasmus Højlund, currently on loan at Napoli, to seal a comfortable victory.
Greece are set to contest two away fixtures in the next international window, against Scotland at Hampden Park on Thursday 9 October, and Denmark in Copenhagen on Sunday 12 October, and the coming month will be critical in their bid to qualify automatically for next summer’s tournament in North America.
Mads Hermansen, meanwhile, was an unused substitute for Denmark in Piraeus.
Staying in Europe, Tomáš Souček was a late second-half substitute in Czechia’s 1-1 friendly international draw with Saudi Arabia at Malšovická aréna in Hradec Králové.
Ivan Hašek’s charges had taken a first-half lead via Slavia Prague forward Tomáš Chorý’s penalty, before the West Ham No28 was introduced on 88 minutes to win his 83rd cap, though just three minutes later, the visitors had their leveller through Abdullah Al-Hamdan.
Having made it four wins from five UEFA Group L World Cup qualifiers by seeing off Montenegro on Friday, where a goal in each half was enough to seal a 2-0 success in Podgorica, Czech hopes of reaching a first World Cup since 2006 are on track.
Souček and his teammates have two qualifiers coming up in the next international window, at home to Croatia on Thursday 9 October and away at the Faroe Islands on Sunday 12 October, before they finish Group L with the visit of Gibraltar to Andrův stadion in Olomouc in November.
