- Gareth O'Reilly
- Sat, Jun 14 2014
Columbia showed that even without Falcao they have enough quality to produce their fair share of goals as they dismantled Greece with relative ease thanks to goals from Pablo Armero, Teofilo Gutierrez and James Rodriguez.
The opening goal came after just five minutes as Cuadrado whipped the ball across the box at pace. The cross was met by the unusual figure of a full back charging into the box in the form of Pablo Armero as the Columbia took the lead.
In a first half of few chances a free kick taken by Jose Holebas provided a rare chance. The free was beautifully whipped in from the left side of the field and was met by the rising Vasilis Torosidis who headed inches wide with a well-timed powerful effort.
The next effort of note did not present itself for another ten minutes as AnIbarbo delivered a ball in to the back post that Rodriguez managed to stretch to and direct an effort that went only marginally wide.
A much needed half time break was approaching but before it did Kone tried to draw Greece level by unleashing a powerful effort from 25 yards. The ball dropped kindly to the midfielder but not kindly enough to allow him to score as Ospina produced a top quality save to keep his side in front heading into the break.
Greece came out from the break all guns blazing and created numerous chances through Samaras and Torosidis but there was something about the 2004 European Champions that was lacking.
The second goal of the game did arrive a short time later and it fell to Teofila Gutierrez from a corner kick. The ball was played in by Rodriguez, it was then flicked on to the back post by Aguilar before Gutierrez volleyed it in from two yards out. The goal really highlighted how Greece’s back line could be in for a lot of hardship this summer.
Just five minutes later Greece went close to getting a goal back as Gekas headed the ball back off the cross bar with the Columbia defence seemingly asleep whilst on the job. Gekas will be wondering how he managed to miss as the goal seemed like it was pleading to receive the ball. A five yard headed miss summing up Greece’s night in many respect.
With the game now well and truly over the pace went out of the game for the final ten minutes but deep into injury time Colombia got a deserved third goal. James Rodriguez was the man that got it as he applied a cute finish to score pass Karnezis.
Colombia: David Ospina; Juan Zúñiga, Cristian Zapata, Mario Yepes, Pablo Armero (Santiago Arias 74); Carlos Sánchez, Abel Aguilar (Alex Mejia, 69); James Rodriguez, Juan Cuadrado, Victor Ibarbo;Teófila Gutierrez (Jackson Martinez 76)
Subs Not Used: Carlos Carbonero, Camilo Vargas, Freddy Guarin, Eder Álvarez Balanta, Carlos Bacca, Adrian Ramos, Juan Quintero, Fayard Mondragón, Carlos Valdes.
Booked: Carlos Sanchez (6)
Greece: Orestis Karnezis; Kostas Manolas, Vasilis Torosidis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Jose Holebas; Giannis Maniatis, Panagiotis Kone (Giorgos Karagounis), Kostas Katsouranis; Dimitrios Salpingidis (Giannis Fetfatzidis 57), Theofanis Gekas, Georgios Samaras.
Subs Not Used: Giorgos Tzavellas, Vangelis Moras, Alexandros Tziolis, Kostas Mitroglou, Loukas Vyntra, Panagiotis Glykos, Stefanos Kapino, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Andreas Samaris, Panagiotis Tachtsidis
Booked: Dimitrios Salpingidis (55)
Referee: Mark W.Geiger (USA)
Attendance: 57,174
