Friendly international

Greece 2 - Spain 3

Greece: Nikopolidis (Chalkias 46'); Seitaridis (Patsatzoglou 46'), Kapsis, Dellas (Antzas 46'), Torosidis (Vyntra 46'); Zagorakis (Goumas 17'), Basinas (Tziolis 78'), Katsouranis (Papadopoulos 63'), Karagounis; Salpingidis, Gekas. 4-4-2.
Spain: Reina; Ángel, Marchena, Juanito, Pernía; Joaquín (Cesc 82'), Albelda (Xabi Alonso 66'), Xavi (Luis García 70'), David Silva; David Villa (Angulo 76'), Fernando Torres (Iniesta 46'). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 19. Gekas. Steered angled header down past Reina from Karagounis cross.
1-1. 38. Marchena. Got ahead of Nikopolidis to head Xavi free kick into net.
2-1. 43. Katsouranis. Picked up short Karagounis pass and shot wide of Reina.
2-2. 67. Silva. At second attempt after Chalkias blocked shot from Villa.
2-3. 93. Silva. Ran on to Cesc's chipped pass and slipped ball past keeper.

A last minute goal from Valencia's David Silva gave Spain a 2-3 victory in their friendly fixture against Greece. With a second string defence due to injuries to most of the regulars, and on a pitch which was not up to scratch, Luis Aragonés's side were up against it right from the start. Gekas almost put the hosts ahead when he took advantage of a mistake by Marchena to hit the post, and a few minutes later the Bayer Leverkusen striker got on the end of Karagounis's cross to head wide of Reina.

Spain gradually got back in the game, and Silva got past Nikopolidis only for the keeper to do enough to ensure the ball only hit the post. Soon afterwards though Marchena got ahead of the keeper to head Xavi's free kick into the net for the equaliser. Their joy only lasted five minutes however before Katsouranis restored the lead after Karagounis turned a pass from Gekas into his path.

Greece had already taken off Zagorakis off early on to allow the PAOK Salonica crowd to applaud him off on his retirement from international football, and coach Otto Rehhagel made four changes to his defence at the break. Villa forced new keeper Chalkias into a fingertip save soon after the restart, and midway through the second half the keeper could only push out a shot from the Valencia striker, allowing his team mate Silva to score at the second attempt.

That appeared to be that though until the last minute of injury time, when Cesc chipped through a pinpoint pass allowing Silva to slip home the winner. It was a record sixth win in a row for Aragonés, and sets the side up nicely for next month's Euro 2008 qualifying games against Iceland and Latvia.