The whole day we were in ashes. I remember almost nothing because my thoughts and the whole team’s were on George Baldock.
This is what the hero for Greece Vangelis Pavlidis said after perhaps the saddest victory for his country. Our southern neighbor beat Euro 2024 finalist England 2:1 in a Nations League match. Hours before the match, however, it became clear that the national team of Greece, Baldock, had drowned in Athens.
“It’s not time to talk about football. He was part of the team. We will miss him very much. I want to wish his family strength. We won, but we don’t want to celebrate. We have no words. The victory is for him”, the hero also said about Greece.
According to one of the leaders of the team, the players of our southern neighbor did not want to play on Thursday night at “Wembley” after the shocking news of the death of their teammate. Alas, UEFA refuses.
“We didn’t want to play with England, but the rules are the rules. UEFA told me that there is no other option when to play this match, so we went on the field,” said the midfielder of the Greek national team, Dimitrios Pelkas.
With both of his goals in England’s goal, the team’s scorer pointed to the black strip on his sleeve, and some of his teammates raised their fingers to the sky. After the final whistle, the national team of Greece posed with the jersey of their late teammate, as they did before the start of the match.
For the European champion from 20 years ago, the success was the first at the mythical “Wembley” over the British in 4 attempts.
As expected, all the media in England trashed the national selection after the disgraceful defeat. Not even the temporary coach of the team, Lee Carsley, was spared. After the meeting, the one who took over from Gareth Southgate explained that he will lead the team in 3 more matches and that’s it.
“On an almost completely impersonal night, Carsley made Gareth Southgate look like he actually knows what he’s doing when he prepares a tactical plan for a game,” wrote the Guardian newspaper in its analysis of the match.
Meanwhile, France recorded a win despite playing without their big star Kylian Mbappe against Israel. Didier Deschamps’ team beat Israel 4:1. According to information from the French Football Federation, the “Real” player is injured. But during the meeting of his homeland, he was spotted partying in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.