Having been forced to remain in League C attributable to poor performance, Greece had to start its campaign on their quest to be promoted. Following group play Romania, which claimed second place over Hungary and Turkey in a gaggle dominated by the Dutch, awaited Greece in a two-legged playoff. Costa Rica claimed its first World Cup knockout stage victory and denied Greece its first by defeating Greece 5-three on penalties. Greece have been subsequently drawn towards Croatia within the play-off spherical, where they had been knocked out over two legs; a 4-1 away defeat set the tone for Greece’s campaign, and within the second leg they drew a blank in a 0-zero stalemate against the Croats to signify the end of their World Cup hopes. Dimitris Salpingidis notched the sport winner in Athens, whereas the second leg finished 1-1 in Bucharest. Greece was drawn into Group C with Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and Japan and finally created an extraordinarily related tournament experience because it did two years prior at Euro 2012. Greece conceded an early goal of their first game towards Colombia, however Panagiotis Kone narrowly missed equalizing just one minute after Colombia’s fifth-minute objective.

Swansea Metropolis striker Wilfried Bony equalized for Ivory Coast in the 73rd minute. In the first minute of stoppage time, Ivory Coast striker Giovanni Sio obstructed a Samaras shot by clipping him from behind within the Ivorian penalty space, leading to a Greece penalty kick which Samaras converted with 30 seconds remaining in the sport, prompting wild celebrations in Greece. To stave off the risk of elimination, the Greece needed to earn no less than some extent in their second match with Japan, who sat alongside them at the bottom of Group C. The task grew more troublesome as soon as captain Kostas Katsouranis received two yellow playing cards, reducing Greece to 10 males within the 38th minute. The despondent Romanian side failed to attain on this match, with Florin Andone putting the post in the 76th minute. An early damage to midfielder Panagiotis Kone introduced on young Olympiacos midfielder Andreas Samaris, who would score his first worldwide purpose after intercepting a poor again-pass by an Ivorian defender. The final time the two sides met in late 2011, Romania came into Greece and dealt Fernando Santos his first defeat as Greece manager in his 18th recreation at the helm.

Greece wanted a win within the last recreation towards Slovenia at house to attain promotion to League B. The match ended on 0-0, with Greece failing to advertise a second consecutive time, regardless of being unbeaten and having conceded only one purpose. Greece reversed the prior 3-1 consequence of their favour this time, scoring each purpose by way of skillful one-contact passing and ending. In Might 2016, the CAS found in Gibraltar’s favour and ordered that FIFA put Gibraltar ahead for FIFA membership, which would permit Gibraltar to take part within the qualifiers if membership was granted. They subsequently were put into the Group B for the Euro 2024 qualifiers together with the Netherlands, France, the Republic of Eire, and Gibraltar. The Galanolefki secured promotion to League B by topping the group ahead of Kosovo, Northern Eire, and Cyprus. In previous years solely those nations belonging to the first Class of European ladies’s football had been in a position to qualify, with a system approximating promotion and relegation between qualification tournaments operating. Greece gained and lost three games each to these opponents altogether, and solely completed third in the Nations League and was unable to advertise to League B when the UEFA revised the format. In the ultimate three games Greece achieved successive victories.

Greece’s qualification campaign for UEFA Euro 2020 commenced with the workforce being positioned in Group J. Attributable to disappointing results, John van ‘t Schip determined not to name-up among the leading members of the squad, similar to Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Kostas Manolas for their ultimate matches. Trailing 1-zero but handed a bonus by the dismissal of Costa Rican Óscar Duarte, Greece forced further time via a Sokratis Papastathopoulos equalizer ten seconds into stoppage time. Navas thwarted a number of alternatives for Greece all through the 30 minutes of additional time and saved Fanis Gekas’ penalty in the sport’s concluding penalty shootout. Trailing 2-zero in the 63rd minute, Fanis Gekas’ header from six yards struck the crossbar for Greece’s best likelihood of the match. A 2-1 residence win over Sweden saved the hopes for qualification alive, and was adopted by a 2-zero away win against Georgia. However after missing a number of possibilities, England discovered themselves behind after 20 minutes of play when Germany scored in their very first assault (Birgit Prinz), and immediately scored a second-a protracted-range shot from Melanie Behringer to go 2-zero up. As Group C runners-up Greece was paired in the spherical of sixteen with Group D shock winners Costa Rica, who won their first-ever World Cup group stage ahead of former world champions Uruguay, Italy and England.