Originally published by Ace Magazine, June 2014.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is only the third time the country that gave democracy to the world has qualified for the final stages. There is though something very pleasing in that in their third tournament they upset the form book and make their way into the last 16 thanks to the man who has been a great servant to Celtic the last few seasons. As Georgios Samaras stepped up to take the penalty that would either send his team marching on or see them trip up in the group stages as they did in 1994 and 2010, what emotions must have been going through his head? What emotions must have been going through the mind of Didier Drogba and the Lion of African football, Yaya Touré?

Group D, Columbia aside, hasn’t exactly set the world alight, Japan have been outclassed despite some great play, The Ivory Coast have perhaps given their all but ultimately come up short and their so called “Golden Generation” is on the inevitable slide, whilst Greece…well they are a true enigma of European football. A team that you really have no idea how they are going to perform one half to the next, let alone from match to match and yet despite being the underdogs, as they were in 2004 when they were perhaps the least fancied European Championship winners since the competition started, they have somehow found themselves playing against Costa Rica in the next round, they really have a splendid chance of finding themselves all of a sudden playing in the last eight of their third World Cup.

It could have been all so different, The Ivory Coast have a pool of players that you would travel far and wide to see, aside from ex-Chelsea talisman Didier Drogba and the Lion of Africa, Manchester City’s Yaya Touré, the wonderful talent of Salomon Kalou, Cheick Tioté, Serey Die and Wilfried Bony all just mouth wateringly good to watch. Such was the importance of this game, such was the magnitude of making sure that the Ivory Coast progressed beyond the group stages that Drogba was picked to play from the start. The legs may be wearing thin, the turn of speed no longer what it was but would you want to play against him and be seen as nothing more than an annoying fly trying to keep up with him?

With Columbia already assured their place in the last 16, such was the underwhelming nature of the other teams that each of them could have found themselves at the end of the day on their way to the next round to take on Costa Rica. Most people would have naturally assumed that The Ivory Coast would see of Greece with his, they would, and perhaps should have, wiped the floor with them but this has been a strange World Cup, a truly exciting one nonetheless but certainly strange. Hosts who have played as if one wrong move and a civil war on the streets of Brazil could break out, favourites Spain crashing out, along with Portugal and outsiders England in the first stage of the competition and teams who have captured the imagination, such as Columbia and Costa Rica coming to the forefront of the public’s attention.

If Drogba and company had got one inside the first ten minutes, as they threated majestically to do so, then this great African side would not be flying home in the next couple of days. Yet minute by minute went by and the Greek back line remained as solid as Pythagoras’ theory and as resolute as the defence of Thermopylae. All it needed was man of the match José Holebas to do his very best Gerard Butler impersonation and the game would have lasted as long as the siege itself.

With more togas on view inside the Estádio Castelão than John Belushi could have ever got away with in Animal House, perhaps it really was no surprise that the early pressure was soaked up and Greek substitute  Andreas Samaris, an early replacement for Panagiotis Kone, opened the scoring four minutes before the end of the first half. Such a sweetly taken goal and one that surely Samaris will never forget!

Throwing everything forward in the second half, The Ivory Coast players sent wave after wave of beautiful attacking movement down either wing that either comes to nothing or sees the men from Greece defending as if they could sense the outcome. They couldn’t have known of course was to come, not even sage soothsayer Tiresias could have predicted it without causing Juno to check just how badly affected he was with the encounter with the snakes.

With Wilfried Bony coming on, Greece may have folded. The Swansea man is not highly rated for nothing and so it was proved as The Ivory Coast picked up the ball in the middle of the field and with a Gervinho receiving a beautiful threaded pass, made sure that Bony was well placed to net the equaliser and if it stayed the same after 90 minutes to see a well performed Ivory Coast through.

With Didier Drogba replaced, surely making his last World Cup appearance as a great servant to his nation’s footballing ambitions, it seemed that the gods had deserted Greece yet again. The country has been through so much over the last decade, the spectre of far right politics raising its head, the collapse of it economy, youth unemployment going through the roof and bail out after bail out being agreed, that this as way to install some much needed pride in the countries sporting arena was looking as damaged as a priceless urn being dropped from a great height.

With the Ivory Coast just three minutes away from the last 16, from nowhere a rush of blood to the head, an errant tackle inside the box on Georgios Samaras and the last 16 became a faded dream, an ending of sporting nightmares. Perhaps the only clam Greek person on the planet stepped up thousands of miles from home and with style and certain amount of coolness slotted home the penalty that made sure Greece earned their good fortune.

You have to feel some pity for The Ivory Coast, they haven’t performed anywhere near their absolute best in 2014 but they have been tenacious and firm, it is just that the end product let them down. They will be back but it won’t feel the same without some of their old giants.

For Greece, the surprised satisfaction of making into the last 16 for the first time will give them extra encouragement, they won’t go all the way as they did 2014, perhaps, but they at least have earned their spurs.

Greece: Orestis Karnezis, Vasilis Torosidis, Konstantinos Manolas, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, José Holebas, Giorgos Karagounis, Ioannis Maniatis, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, Panagiotis Kone, Georgios Samaras, Dimitris Salpingidis.

Substitutes: Andreas Samaris, Panagiotis Glykos, Theofanis Gekas.

Ivory Coast: Boubacar Barry, Serge Aurier, Kolo Touré, Sol Bamba, Arthur Boka, Cheick Tioté, Serey Die, Salomon Kalou, Yaya Touré, Gervinho, Didier Drogba.

Substitutes: Wilfried Bony, Ismaël Diomandé, Giovanni Sio.

Referee:  Carlos Vera.

Venue: Estádio Castelão, Fortaleza.

Goal Scorers: Greece: Andreas Samaris, Georgios Samaras. Ivory Coast:  Wilfried Bony.

Final Score: Greece 2-1 Ivory Coast.

Man of the Match: José Holebas.

 

Ian D. Hall