Greece went down 1-0 to Paraguay in an international friendly in Piraeus on Friday, showing it needs plenty more work to match a team that has qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
The game marked the start of preparation for the new campaign for Greece that will concern the upcoming Nations League in the fall and then the qualifiers for the Euro 2028 finals. Another friendly will follow on Tuesday night in Budapest against Hungary, plus two more in the summer.
At the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Greece manager Ivan Jovanovic chose Como striker Tasos Douvikas up front instead of Vangelis Pavlidis. Behind him were Tasos Bakasetas, Konstantinos Karetsas and Christos Tzolis, in a productive yet not that efficient grouping.
All this changed on the 61st minute, with Jovanovic introducing a new front line, featuring two in the box, as substitute Andreas Tetteh paired up with Douvikas up front, supported by Giannis Konstantelias and Giorgos Masouras.
After a series of missed chances by both teams, the visitors opened the score on the 52nd minute with a Diego Gomez free-kick just outside the area, that beat the Greek wall and keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos.
All Greek efforts to find an equalizer after that were in vain, but at least gave the few thousand fans at the stands something to cheer about, given also that the result mattered little.
The difference between the two sides was in experience, of which the Paraguayans seemed to have plenty.
Jovanovic will need to do his best to have his players for as long as possible in the coming months, for the benefit of the team and of Greek soccer in general.