Jan Mucha howler gifts Greece victory

Athens: A freak own goal by Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel gave Greece a 1-0 victory over Slovakia on Friday that kept them in the running to top World Cup Group G qualifying.

Fernando Santos’s team were in the ascendancy for long spells and claimed all three points at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium thanks to a mistake by goalkeeper Jan Mucha in the 44th minute.

Mucha took his eye off the ball when Skrtel rolled a simple back pass to him and the ball sneaked under the keeper’s foot and across the line.

Skrtel’s night went from bad to worse after the final whistle when he was shown a red card for fighting with defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos as the players were leaving the pitch.

Greece are in second place with 22 points, the same total as leaders Bosnia, who have a vastly superior goal difference of plus-23 compared to plus-6.

Qualification is now down to the fixtures on Tuesday, when Greece entertain bottom team Liechtenstein and Bosnia travel to fourth-placed Lithuania.