Greece digs in for a scoreless draw, frustrating a dominant Germany

The scoreline read 0-0 at Toumba Stadium, but one number tells the real story of what happened there: Germany put up 21 shots to Greece's 5 and still walked away empty-handed. In the UEFA Nations League, the draw works out better for the Greeks, who were playing at home and held firm for a clean sheet despite spending nearly the entire match on the back foot.

The play that defined everything came in the 31st minute. Jonathan Burkardt buried the ball and the goal was celebrated, but VAR overturned it after review and the score stayed frozen: Greece 0, Germany 0. It was the closest Jurgen Klopp's side came to breaking the deadlock, and it came to nothing.

The rest of the first half was a relentless German siege, with Derry Scherhant and Florian Wirtz testing the keeper again and again from outside the box and David Raum piling on attempts down the left. Greece, leaning on Giorgos Masouras as their main offensive threat, barely troubled Germany beyond a header in the first minute and focused on defending with discipline, handing out yellow cards along the way (Kostas Tsimikas, Waldemar Anton) to snuff out German advances.

The second half didn't change the script much. Konstantinos Mavropanos tried twice with headers but couldn't find the target, and Konstantinos Karetsas, on the field after the break, added a bit more thrust to the Greek attack. But Germany kept pushing: Tom Bischof, Malick Thiaw and Wirtz again had shots that failed to find the net, and not even Klopp's substitutions (Said El Mala, Nick Woltemade, Bambase Conte and Mika Baur all came on) could unlock the game.

What the numbers say

The gap in ball control was enormous, and the stats confirm it without much room for debate:

The estimated xG based on the match's shots backs up Germany's edge, though it's not a lopsided gap: 0.93 for Greece compared to 1.26 for Germany. Those numbers explain why the visitors generated more danger, but also why that danger never translated into a goal.

The result also falls short of the pre-match projection, which had given a 36% chance of a visiting win, 34% for the home side and 30% for a draw, with 2.54 combined expected goals. None of that played out: there weren't many goals, and neither side won.

In Group A2, the draw leaves Greece with 8 points from 4 games played, sitting in second place, level on points with the Netherlands but behind them in the standings. Germany stays on 5 points from the same number of matches, in third, now 3 points behind Greece in this head-to-head. It's a point that shores up Greece's position, while Germany is left with the feeling of goals left on the field.