Georgia holds Greece in Euro qualifier

Nikos Spyropoulos scored a late goal for Greece to salvage a 1-1 draw with Georgia on Friday in their opening qualifier for the 2012 European Championship

Georgia took the lead in the third minute, when Alexander Iashvili slipped through a gap in the defense to send the ball past goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis.

The Greeks showed little imagination for much of the Group F game but pressed hard after the break. Spyropoulos leveled in the 72nd minute after defender Malkhaz Asatiani cleared an effort from Costas Mitroglou off the line.

Greece, the 2004 European champion, was playing its first competitive match under Portuguese coach Fernando Santos.

"We got our game back in the second half but it wasn't enough for the win," Spyropoulos said. "It will be hard to make up for these two lost points. The early goal was a slap in the face. It will take a little time to adjust to the new coach's philosophy."

The 55-year-old Santos was appointed coach in June, replacing Otto Rehhagel, who stepped down after a nine years in charge and following Greece's group-stage elimination at the World Cup in South Africa.

"Our plans were upset by the early goal and it took the players too long to recover. In the second half, we regrouped and I saw a lot of positive things," Santos said. "The players lost their organization, so I changed the formation back to one that the players were more familiar with, going from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. As things were, this suited them better."

Georgia coach Temuri Ketsbaia, who played and coached at clubs in Greece and Cyprus, was happy with the result.

"Our players were under a lot of pressure, so it was great to get this point and go into our next games with something positive," he said.

Greece often looked disjointed in attack and rarely threatened, apart from brief spells in the second half.

Greece forward Dimitris Salpigidis missed a clear chance to score in the 52nd minute with only goalkeeper Nukri Revishvili to beat, and Mitroglou wasted an injury-time opportunity.

Israel, Croatia, Latvia and Malta make up Group F.

Lineups:

Greece: Michalis Sifakis, Giourkas Seitaridis (Costas Mitroglou, 71), Nikos Spyropoulos, Avraam Papadopoulos, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Costas Katsouranis, Vassilis Torosidis, Giorgos Karagounis, Georgios Samaras (Sotiris Ninis, 59), Dimitris Salpigidis, Fanis Gekas.

Georgia: Nukri Revishvili, Ucha Lobjanidze, Malkhaz Asatiani, Kakha Kaladze, Aleksander Amisulashvili, Zurab Khizanishvili, Gogita Gogua (Giorgi Merebashvili, 87), Dato Kvirkvelia, Alexander Iashvili (Jano Ananidze, 54), Levan Kobiashvili, Vladimir Dvalishvili (Nikoloz Gelashvili, 60).