Costas Mitroglou

A rather experimental Greece team lost 2-1 to Turkey on Thursday at a friendly game in Antalya, showing manager Angelos Anastasiadis has plenty of work to do to gear the national team up for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Italy and Armenia at home.

Greece will miss talismanic striker Costas Mitroglou in its key clash with Bosnia on Tuesday due to his injury in the game at Liechtenstein, but at least it will welcome back captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Mitroglou picked up a leg injury that is ruling him out of the game at Zenica, so coach Angelos Anastasiadis has called up Panionios striker Fiorin Durmishaj to replace him.

The Greek national team defeated Liechtenstein 2-0 at Vaduz at the start of its campaign for the Euro 2020 qualifiers on Saturday, having produced one hour of decent soccer.

Greece began its campaign in the new UEFA tournament, the Nations League with a 1-0 win at Estonia on Saturday, but was only convincing in the first half and left much to be desired in the second.

Greece produced a much more encouraging performance in its friendly game with Egypt on Tuesday, as the victory with a 1-0 score can in no way reflect the Greek supremacy in the match played in Zurich.

Greece suffered a 1-0 friendly loss to Switzerland on Friday in its first match for 2018, going down at the Olympic Stadium of Athens to a team that will feature in this summer's World Cup.

Greece striker Costas Mitroglou has suffered a leg muscle injury and will stay out of action for the next three or four weeks, making him doubtful for the national team's friendly games next month.

Mitroglou was injured while training with his club in France, Olympique Marseille, and is certain to miss his team's European games against Sporting Braga for the Europa League.

Greece manager Michael Skibbe is changing more than half of his starting line-up for the return leg of the World Cup play-off, according to the official line-ups.

The national team did its duty on Tuesday and defeated visiting Gibraltar 4-0 in Piraeus to finish second in its World Cup qualifying group and advance to the play-offs in November for a ticket to the finals in Russia next summer.

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.