Greece scores late to advance at World Cup

By Dererk Gatopoulos

Greece doesn't score often at the World Cup, but its goals certainly come at the right time.

Greece doubled its total scoring tally at World Cup tournaments by netting twice against the Ivory Coast on Tuesday — the second coming through an injury-time penalty that secured a 2-1 victory and a spot in the knockout rounds.

Having gone scoreless through its first two games in Brazil — a loss and a draw — the Greeks are now improbably into the round of 16 for the first time in their history — when European powers like Spain, Italy and England are going home.

Ivory Coast only needed a draw to advance at Greece's expense and was a couple of minutes away from celebrating when Georgios Samaras was adjudged to have been tripped in the area by substitute Giovanni Sio. Samaras calmly slotted in the spot kick for a last-gasp win that eliminated the Africans.

"This means so much to me, to us ... Tonight we had energy," Samaras said, dedicating the win to Greeks suffering through financial crisis. "We really hope we can make the people happy back home. We are a team. A team — that's it."

Celebrations erupted in Greece, where the game ended well after midnight. Thousands of fans poured into the streets to celebrate in Athens, and the country's second-largest city Thessaloniki.

The players in Fortaleza danced around in a circle and sang with small groups of travelling fans at Arena Castelao who had been drowned out all night by the pro-African Brazilian crowd.

Greece only scored twice in its previous two World Cup tournaments and lost its opening game in Brazil to eventual Group C winner Colombia 3-0 before holding Japan 0-0.

On Tuesday, it took the lead just before halftime through substitute Andreas...