Greece Women Out of World Cup Playoffs After 5-0 Loss to England

By Taki Panos

Greece needed something close to a miracle in Leicester on Tuesday night, and England made sure there was no time to even start believing in one. Alessia Russo scored inside three minutes, the Lionesses were 4-0 up by the break, and the final whistle at the King Power Stadium confirmed a 5-0 win and an 8-1 aggregate victory in the first round of the Women's World Cup qualifying playoffs, as BBC Sport reported. Greece's road to Brazil 2027 ends here.

If you caught our first-leg recap from Heraklion, you know the math going in. England won 3-1 in Crete on Friday, Kallisti Brouksair scored a late goal that gave Greece a sliver of hope, and coach Vasilis Spertos's side needed to win by two just to force extra time. England, the two-time reigning European champions, were only in the playoffs because Spain edged them on goal difference in their league-phase group, as ESPN explained before kickoff.

Sarina Wiegman had asked for a more ruthless team after the first leg, and she got one right away. Lauren James slid Russo through for the opener, and James then scored herself in the 16th minute with a shot across goal, according to Gazzetta. Around the half-hour mark, Lauren Hemp crossed for Georgia Stanway, who headed in the third, and Hemp set up James four minutes later for 4-0. That was the tie finished, really, with more than 55 minutes still to play.

It is worth saying what Greece were up against. BBC Sport's match stats had England with 84 percent of the ball, 19 shots to Greece's two, and 877 passes to 161. Wiegman made two changes from Crete, bringing in Jess Carter at the back and handing 20-year-old Lexi Potter a full debut in midfield, and the BBC's Emma Sanders wrote that the switch let Stanway and Keira Walsh push higher, while Walsh and Potter cut off Greece's counterattacks. When a team that good fixes its one problem in four days, the underdog's evening gets long.

The Greek player who deserves the first mention is goalkeeper Styliani Katergiannaki. BBC Sport credited her with four saves, including a one-on-one stop on England debutant Freya Godfrey in the second half, and England also had two more goals taken off the board. Potter thought she had scored on her debut before it was ruled out for a foul by Stanway in the build-up, and a Stanway finish was later disallowed for offside after a VAR check. On another night the scoreline gets uglier, and Katergiannaki is a big reason it did not.

After the break the game slowed down, and Greece got a little relief. Spertos made three changes at halftime, sending on Darzanou, Rapani and Drakogiannaki, per the BBC's lineups, and the BBC's live commentary noted that England had nine shots in the second half before they finally scored again in the 75th minute. Walsh found Russo, who took a clever first touch away from her defender, rounded Katergiannaki and slotted in from a tight angle for 5-0. It was a lovely finish, and the kind of goal that settles any argument about who belonged in the next round.

There was a sour moment too. Eleni Saich had to come off in tears after Stanway raked her studs down Saich's ankle, a challenge the BBC's live text said Stanway was lucky to escape without a card, and Panagiota Argyriou replaced her. Late on, the BBC also flagged a clumsy challenge from Drakogiannaki on Jess Park that probably deserved a yellow. Neither moment changed the scoreboard, but I hope Saich's injury turns out to be minor, because a player who earns minutes against the European champions is a player Greece will want back soon.

Former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, singled out Carter for the job she did on Ioanna Papatheodorou, the Greek striker who had been such a handful in Heraklion. Carter, she said, had not let Papatheodorou turn and run at the defence the way she did freely on Friday. That is a compliment to Papatheodorou as much as to Carter. England changed their plan to deal with one Greek forward, which tells you how much trouble she caused them in the first leg.

The Greek coverage was honest about it. Gazzetta's headline read "Greece tried, but the English were unbeatable" (translated from Greek), and its report said the gap in quality was obvious and that, after the 3-1 defeat at the Pankritio, there was no real hope of a comeback. That is fair. Greece have never qualified for a major tournament, as the Guardian noted last week, and drawing the European champions in the first playoff round was about the toughest ticket in the hat.

Zoom out and the autumn still has positives. Greece reached this playoff on the back of league-phase wins over Georgia and the Faroe Islands, home and away, per ESPN's results, and they scored in Crete against a team that conceded nothing in Leicester. England, meanwhile, move on to face Ukraine, who beat Slovakia 4-1 on aggregate, in the second round in November and December, with a place at the 2027 World Cup in Brazil for the winner. Over two legs, the Lionesses simply had too much.

My take: this one stings less than the scoreline suggests, and more than people will admit. Losing 8-1 over two legs to the European champions is not a scandal. But the gap showed up in every number, and the lesson is the same one that comes up after every big women's tie: Greek players need more competitive games, more professional minutes, and fuller stands when the big nights come home. The players held up their end over two legs. The structure around them has to catch up.

Greece's women now regroup for the next international window, while England turn their attention to Ukraine. For more stories like this one, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Two legs, one Greek goal, a busy night for the goalkeeper, and a lot of homework. That is how programs get built.

Sources: BBC Sport, Gazzetta, ESPN, The Guardian.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).