Greece 1 Ghana 1 - Report

THESSALONIKI, Greece, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Greece 1 Ghana 1 - result on Wednesday Friendly international
Scorers
Greece - Thomas Kypariis 15 Ghana - Charles Akunnor 38
Halftime: 1-1; Attendance 10,000

NOTE: Greece beat Nigeria 2-0 last month

Chatzipanagis assist helps Greece tie Ghana 1-1

From a Greek Paper. Translated from Greek to English
It was a friendly game in honor of Iraklis's "mega star" player, Vasilis Chatzipanagis, and nobody else could steal the show but Chatzipanagis himself. He had to since this was the first time in his soccer career that he wore the Greek national team jersey even though it was a friendly game against Ghana. Chatzipanagis was part of Daniil's starting line up, played for 23 minutes, and finally was substituted by Kostas Fratzeskos. It was the soccer "virtuoso" that literally "painted" a beautiful cross to Venetidis for Greece to go ahead on the score. Even if the player left the playing field he was still the star of the game. During intermission the "mega star" from the past couldn't stop receiving awards being handed to him.
The Greek Soccer Federation, the Macedonian-Thrace Ministry, the state of Thessaloniki and the town's mayor, PSAP, PSAT, the Palemachi of Iraklis, PAOK, Aris, and Panathinaikos, the United Coaches of Thessaloniki, Iraklis's organized fans club, were "some" of the people that honored the "Nureyief" of Greek soccer. The player all "choked up" from the mere fact that he played in the same stadium where he started as a young player managed to say the following. "I am very "touched" by the fact that after all this time I was able to "enter" the field once again. I thank everyone very much. I feel that they are all as I expected and hopefully I came through for them in the 15-20 minutes that I played."
As far as the game goes the Greek national team coach was not happy with the performance of the Greek nationals. Our Greek national team opened the score in the 14th minute when Chatzipanagis crossed the ball in the back of Ghana's defensive line and found Venetidis all by himself. The young PAOK player took the shot but the Ghanian goalkeeper blocked the ball which in turn came back to the oncoming Kiparissis who in an empty net had no problem making the score 1-0. The game was not exciting for the fans and very few scoring opportunities were created by both teams. The only exception was a "chip" shot from Johnson in the 16th minute that was saved by Eleftheropoulos and a Fratzeskos shot that barely missed Ghana's post. In the 38th minute Akunor with a direct free-kick made the score 1-1.
The second half was played pretty much along the same lines as the first. Both teams played a "mid field" game trying to find pathways to their opponents area. Greece was a bit more aggressive than Ghana but wasn't able to come close to a second goal. In the 69th minute Fratzeskos delivered a hard shot outside Ghana's penalty area but the goalkeeper blocked the ball. in the 80th minute it was Fratzeskos once again that with a direct free kick sent the ball on Ghana's post. In the last 10 minutes of the match the Greek players moved up a level but it was to late.
GHANA: Kingston, Yaw Owusu, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, Stephen Baidoo, Kofi Amponsah, Owusu Benson, Charles Akunnor, Kwame Ayew, Ahinful, Johnson, Ofori Quaye. Other Ghanaian players that played were: Baba, Kenedy, Justice.


GREECE: Eleftheropoulos, Amanatidis, Mavrogenidis, Georgiadis, Venetidis, Stoltidis, Tsartas, Chatzipanagis, Dabizas, Ouzounidis, Kiparrisis. Other Greek players that played were: Fratzeskos, Poursanidis, Katergiannakis, Antzas, Koutsis, and P. Konstantinidis.