Ireland fail to fire as Greece ease to comfortable win in Euro 2024 qualifier

Greece hammered the final nail in Ireland's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a comfortable victory over Stephen Kenny’s struggling selection at the Aviva Stadium.

Despite a bright start from the home side, where Evan Ferguson hit the post in the fourth minute, Gus Poyet’s visiting unit worked their way into the contest and eventually took the lead with a quality Giorgos Giakoumakis header in the 20th minute.

Ireland looked to get back into the contest but were hit with a counterattacking Giorgos Masouras sucker punch in first half injury time to see Greece take control of the tie.

Kenny’s side had little to offer in the second half and were unable to challenge for what was a must-win encounter against the group’s fourth-ranked side.

The manager called for a high-octane performance from his Ireland team and while it took a few minutes to settle into the new-look formation, with Liam Scles making his debut at left-back in a four-man defence, it took less than four minutes to get a shot on target.

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Greece's opener came from Giorgos Giakoumakis

Chiedozie Ogbene cut in from the right, and as the Greek defence backed off, he clipped a clever ball through to the arriving Will Smallbone, whose snapshot was batted away by Odysseas Vlachodimos.

A minute later, Evan Ferguson picked up the ball on the right of the penalty area and moved it onto his left foot before attempting to curl it inside the far post.

The carefully crafted effort appeared to have the keeper beaten, but the