Euro Qualifying Semifinal: Greece vs Kazakhstan Odds
First Meeting in 18 Years
Long Road Ahead for Greece
Of all 12 teams involved in the UEFA Euro Qualifying Play-offs, Greece are the only previous winners of the full competition. Greece went on an improbable run in 2004 to take home their only trophy and their route to a second title is incredibly circuitous. They’d have to defeat Kazakhstan and the winner of Georgia vs. Luxembourg on Thursday and next Tuesday, respectively, just to qualify for Euro 2024 group stage. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan are looking for their first major tournament appearance. Although they don’t have the same resume as Greece, they’ve managed some impressive recent results. Ahead of an intriguing match, let’s take a look at the Greece vs Kazakhstan odds.
Greece vs Kazakhstan
Date, time:
Location: OPAP Arena, Nea Filadelfiai, Greece
Greece vs Kazakhstan Head-to-Head
This is the first meeting between Greece and Kazakhstan on the UEFA Euro schedule. It’s also the first opportunity to bet on the Greece vs Kazakhstan odds for over 18 years. All three of Greece and Kazakhstan’s previous matchups were between 2004 and 2006. Greece are 3-0 vs. Kazakhstan and have only conceded twice in this fixture.
Defense Paramount for Greece
Greece were in quite a difficult group in Euro qualifiers. Drawn with France, Netherlands, Ireland and Gibraltar, Greece finished in third place in the Group B UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying standings. Greece conceded three goals in only one match and they did manage to draw vs. France on the final matchday. Both Tasos Bakasetas and Petros Mantalos managed five goal contributions each in the group stage.
To advance to the Qualifying Play-offs, Greece finished in first place in UEFA Nations League C Group 2. Ethniki went 5-1 and they’ll be in Nations League B next time around. Greece’s backline is the strongest point of their team, with Premier League players like Kostas Tsimikas and Dinos Mavropanos. Greece don’t have a prolific goalscorer and none of their forwards have more than nine career goals for the national team.
Midfielder Manolis Siopis has been dealing with an injury and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be read for Thursday’s match. Dimitris Giannoulis is also out with a long term hamstring injury. Meanwhile, Petros Mantalos and Dimitrios Kourbelis are returning from suspensions here and should be able to slot back into the starting lineup.
Kazakhstan on the Rise
Kazakhstan also qualified for the Nations League play-off by winning their group in Nations League C. They had already clinched first place by the final matchday, which made their 3-0 loss to Azerbaijan irrelevant. Kazakhstan have never before come close to qualifying for the European Championships. They are a team on the rise, though, and they performed admirably on their UEFA Euro schedule for qualifiers.
In group qualifiers, Kazakhstan went a respectable 6-4 and posted a positive goal difference. They even managed a historic win over Denmark, who finished in first place in the group. Abat Aymbetov scored the winning goal in that match and he led Kazakhstan with three goals in the UEFA Euro qualifiers stats.
Aymbetov, along with Bakhtiyar Zaynutdinov, Aleksandr Zuyev and Nuraly Alip are the only four Kazakh players who play abroad. Aymbetov and Zaynutdinov play in the Turkish Super Lig, while Zuyev and Alip are in nearby Russia. Kazakhstan also had a warm up friendly vs. Turkmenistan last week, which they won 2-0.
Greece vs Kazakhstan Match Analysis & Odds
Notably, Greece have lost just one of their last ten games on home soil. They have a perfect record vs. Kazakhstan and will be looking to keep things that way come Thursday. The Greece vs Kazakhstan odds currently price the hosts as -230 favorites. Greece have kept three shutouts in their last five matches while Kazakhstan are on a six game scoring streak.
Here, Kazakhstan under 0.5 goals comes in at -150 odds. The visitors are also +730 underdogs even though they were able to pick up three road wins in Euro qualifiers. One could argue this is the biggest match in Kazakhstan’s history and that should be motivation enough for their players. Still, their job will be harder with Alip suspended.
They may be ranked just 100th in the world but Kazakhstan have stayed competitive with other teams participating in the Play-off in recent years. Greece -1, -1.5 sits at -115 odds for this one and so does Kazakhstan +1, +1.5. While Greece tend to not lose many competitive matches at home, a draw (+330) and extra time are not out of the question. Greece have scored at least two goals in all of their previous matches vs. Kazakhstan but under 2, 2.5 goals are priced at -120.
