Scoreless Greece gets gift from Cyprus

Greece failed to beat Estonia at home, conceding a goalless draw on Thursday in Piraeus for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, but the triumph of Cyprus over Bosnia in Nicosia (3-2) has stretched the advantage the Greeks have over the Bosnians to two points, with three games left to play in the group.

The team of manager Michael Skibbe beat Estonia 2-0 away last year, but this time it proved unable to break down the Estonian defense at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.

Skibbe had to field a rather experimental team given the absence of key players such as Costas Mitroglou, Vassilis Torosodis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos etc.

Nottingham Forest striker Apostolos Vellios was alone up front, facing a five-man Estonian defense.

The mediocre performance of the Greeks produced few goal-scoring opportunities, which mostly fell to Vellios and to energetic Tasos Donis. At...