60 mins: Ireland playing with a bit more verve in the last few minutes but they need to make it count.
Ebosele moving the ball in but is dispossessed. Too easy for Greece.
Greece 1 Republic of Ireland 0
56 mins: Robbie Brady cross again goes for the back post. Vlachodimos gets a hand to it and it’s cleared.
Substitutions for Ireland. Festy Ebosele on for Chiedozie Ogbene, Jack Taylor on for Evan Ferguson.
Greece 1 Republic of Ireland 0
48mins: GOAL FOR GREECE. Bakkasetas finds the net.
The Greece captain finds a way past Kelleher moments after he was denied by the the Cork man.
Greece 1 Republic of Ireland 0
Back underway in Athens.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
It’s been all about the defence for Ireland in the opening 45 minutes.
Greece are showing their win over England on Thursday was far from a fluke. They’re in flying form.
Liverpool’s Caoimhín Kelleher is putting in a major shift.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
HALF-TIME: GREECE 0 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 0
45 mins: Yellow cards for Greece’s Giannoulis for holding Ogbene.
Irish free kick from Robbie Brady drops in high, but goalkeeper Vlachodimos gets under it.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
44 mins: A pull by Josh Cullen on Siopis draws a free for Greece. Amounts to nothing, so Cullen’s off the hook for that one.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
39 mins: Ogbene makes a good run up the wing and beats Mavropanos but he’s isolated.
He turns in to make the cross but it deflects off Hatzidiakos to go out for the corner.
Troy Parrott does well to keep the subsequent corner kick in play at the left post, but Greece’s defence manage to make the clearence to the far line.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
29 mins: Cross finds Tzolis who spins on the spot to pass to Giannoulis. He makes the shot but Kelleher again denies the home side.
The clearence attempt doesn’t go far and Greece are back on the attack. It’s Giannoulis again, this time with a hanging cross into the box, which Kelleher fields.
Pressure from Greece is relentless.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
25 mins: Pavlidis attempts the shot off the left wing but Nathan Collins gets in for the block.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
20 mins: Caoimhín Kelleher having a busy start to the game. Vangelis Pavlidis gets in on goal, but Kelleher blocks his shot.
Greece piling on the pressure at the Irish end.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
17 mins: Another chance for Greece. Christos Tzolis crosses into the box to find Giorgos Masouras. He doesn’t get power into the header through, and it’s off to the left for a goal kick.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
10 mins: Great save from Kelleher. Greece are on the push but Kelleher is solid under pressure, seeing a Greek shot left of the post and out for a corner.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
Early chance for Ireland. Troy Parrott finds Evan Ferguson but a push in the back throws him off his stride. No sympathy from the referee however.
Greece 0 Republic of Ireland 0
And we’re underway at Karaiskakis Stadium.
In tribute to Greece defender George Baldock, who was found dead at his home in Athens on Wednesday aged 31, both sets of players are wearing black armbands.
Five minute warning!
So, what’s our record against Greece?
Our last four encounters went Greece’s way, the most recent being their 2-0 victory at the Aviva last month in the first leg of this fixture.
Ireland managed a nil-all draw in Athens back in 2002, and that’s the height of it.
Elsewhere in Group 2, Finland played host to England in the earlier kick-off. England taking a 3-1 win.
Jack Grealish and Declan Rice again both netted for Lee Carsley’s side, joined on the score sheet on this occasion by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Arttu Hoskonen softened the blow with a goal for Finland in the 87th minute.
In table terms, England are now level with Greece on nine points. Ireland is third on three points, leaving Finland last with no point to their credit.
Anyone confused about what this game matters in the grander scheme of things? No worries, welcome to Nations League 101…
The Nations League is linked to qualification for the European Championship finals, so a spot at Euro 2028 is theoretically up for grabs.
However, to earn that spot at our own party – we’re joint hosts of Euro 2028 remember – via this route we need to win League B, which would first involve us having to get out of our group (that’s Group 2, with England, Finland and Greece).
From our three games thus far, Ireland have taken two losses and a win.
But it’s not all about the Euros. Where we place also determines which tier of the league we’ll play in next time around. In League B, a top-place group finish sees the team promoted to League A, and second goes on to play the third-ranked teams from League A for a chance at promotion too.
The third-placed team in League B goes to the playoffs against the second finishers from League C, in which an aggregate loss would see them relegated to the lower tier, while the fourth-place League B finisher gets relegated straight down to League C.
While we wait for kick-off, have a read back over the reports from Thursday night’s games:
[ Robbie Brady rolls back the years as Ireland finally taste victory in HelsinkiOpens in new window ]
Dispatches from Gavin to confirm the starters.
GREECE: Vlachodimos (Newcastle United); Rota (AEK Athens), Mavropanos (West Ham United), Hatzidiakos (FC Copenhagen), Giannoulis (Augsburg); Kourbelis (Al-Khaleej), Siopis (Cardiff City); Masouras (Olympiacos), Bakasetas (Panathinaikos), Tzolis (Club Brugge); Pavlidis (Benfica).
IRELAND: Kelleher (Liverpool); O’Shea (Ipswich Town), Collins (Brentford), Scales (Celtic), Brady (Preston North End); Ogbene (Ipswich Town), Cullen (Burnley), Knight (Bristol City), Szmodics (Ipswich Town); Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion).
And our referee for the evening is Joey Kooij of the Netherlands.
And here’s Ireland’s staring team.
Mainly unchanged from Thursday except Troy Parrott is in for Finn Azaz.
Good evening and welcome to The Irish Times’ live blog for Greece v the Republic of Ireland. Muireann Duffy here to take you through the action.
Gavin Cummiskey is our man on the ground in Athens, and he hasn’t let the feel-good factor of Ireland’s win over Finland cloud his judgment.
“Warning: recent history demands a cautious, calculated approach from the Republic of Ireland,” he writes, adding Thursday’s victory “could prove a false dawn as Greece in Athens brings bad memories for a mildly rejuvenated Irish team”.
Read his full preview of the game below:
The Republic of Ireland are in Athens to face Greece in the Uefa Nations League. The game kicks off at 7.45pm Irish time and will be televised live on RTÉ2.
Both sides are coming into the game on the back of away wins earlier this week.
Ireland’s victory came in Helsinki against Finland on Thursday, with a goal from Robbie Brady making it 2-1 for the visitor’s minutes from the final whistle, giving Heimir Hallgrímsson his first win as Republic of Ireland manager. Meanwhile at Wembley Stadium in London, the Greeks pulled off a huge upset to beat England, also ending 2-1.
Greece now sit top of the League B Group 2 table on nine points, while Ireland are back in third, behind England, on three points.
Follow along for all the news in advance of kick-off and live updates throughout the game.
