Northern Ireland welcome Greece to Windsor Park in their opening Group C2 clash in 2022-23 UEFA Nations League.
Depending on the result of Cyprus’s match against Kosovo, victory would see Northern Ireland or Greece go top of their group.
Team News
Northern Ireland have no fresh injury concerns to report as Jonny Evans looks to start as he continues to chase game time, following an injury-hit season at Leicester.
The following six players meanwhile are looking for their first senior international caps; Josh Clarke, Shea Charles, Brodie Spencer, Caolan Boyd-Munce, Charlie McCann and Conor McMenamin.
Greece have no fresh injury concerns to report with Premier League stars – Dimitri Giannoulis, Kostas Tsimikas, George Baldock and Christos Tzolis all named in the squad.
Stat Attack
- This is Northern Ireland’s first UEFA Nations League meeting against Greece.
- Northern Ireland have won three of six previous competitive meetings against Greece in all competitions (W3, L3).
- Greece have won just one of three previous visits to Northern Ireland across all competitions (W1, L2).
- Just one of Northern Ireland’s four goals in 2020-21 UEFA Nations League campaign was scored before half-time, courtesy of Paddy McNair in sixth minute in a 5-1 home defeat to Norway.
- Greece kept clean sheets in two of their last three away matches in UEFA Nations League.
Prediction
Following a narrow loss at home to Hungary in an international friendly in March, Northern Ireland will certainly be looking for a more polished end product because they did play well on the attack, whilst a small defensive dip in focus simply proved costly.
Greece meanwhile suffered a pair of contrastable 1-0 results in March against Romania and Montenegro yet are capable of strong performances, especially when facing opposition roughly equal in quality so I expect them to try and make this as difficult as they can given their solid defensive away record.
I however am expecting a home win if Northern Ireland can tidy up their their end product but Greece certainly should prove a tough opposition defensively to beat.
Prediction: Northern Ireland 1-0 Greece
Result: Northern Ireland 0-1 Greece