Greece stuns Serbia with stoppage-time winner, 1-2 in Nations League

Barely three minutes had gone by at Rajko Mitic Stadium when Andrija Zivkovic curled a left-footed finish into the top corner to put Serbia ahead. Everything pointed to a quiet night for the home side. But Greece had other plans, walking away with a 1-2 win thanks to a goal deep into stoppage time.

The start was a gut punch for the visitors: Dusan Tadic set up Zivkovic, who finished from the center of the box for an almost instant 1-0. Greece answered with persistence, and in the 4th minute Konstantinos Karetsas rattled the crossbar frame with a shot off the post. That first half turned into a string of Greek attempts against Vanja Milinkovic-Savic's goal: Christos Tzolis, Charalampos Kostoulas and Vangelis Pavlidis all tried their luck without success, and Serbia went into the break ahead on the scoreboard despite seeing much less of the ball.

In the second half, Greece's persistence finally paid off. In the 73rd minute, Vangelis Pavlidis set up Christos Tzolis, who finished left-footed from inside the box to make it 1-1. The game opened up from there, with both sides making changes in search of a second goal: Serbia brought on Dejan Joveljic and Aleksa Terzic, while Greece countered with Andrews Tetteh and Tasos Douvikas. The home side had chances late on, with Nemanja Maksimovic hitting the post in the 89th minute and a header from Sasa Lukic that ran into the Greek goalkeeper. But the match still had one final twist in store: deep into stoppage time, in the 94th minute, Kostas Tsimikas whipped in a cross that Tasos Douvikas met with a close-range header for the decisive 1-2.

A dominance the scoreline didn't fully capture

The numbers back up what played out on the field: Greece controlled possession comfortably and far outpaced Serbia in chances created inside the box.

Our own xG estimate, calculated from the shots taken during the match, also tips the scales toward the visitors: 2.576 compared to Serbia's 1.848. That figure confirms that, beyond the early scare, Greece was the team that generated more and better chances across the 90 minutes.

What the result means

The win came in the UEFA Nations League, within Group A2, and leaves Greece atop the table with 3 points after this match, while Serbia remains without points. The gap between the two sides in the group standings stands at 3 points. It's worth noting that only one matchday has been played so far, so the current group picture still says little about what's to come.

For Serbia, coached by Veljko Paunovic, the blow stings especially given how it unfolded: going ahead after three minutes only to fall to a stoppage-time goal is the kind of loss that feels worse than the final score suggests. Greece, with Ivan Jovanovic in charge, earned a win built on persistence, with Tzolis and Pavlidis a constant source of danger and Douvikas popping up right when the clock had almost run out.