Saturday 14 June 2014 21:10, UK
Greece were counting the cost of missed chances following their 3-0 defeat by Colombia in their opening game at World Cup 2014.
Coach Fernando Santos' side enjoyed plenty of possession in the opening fixture of Group C, which took place in Belo Horizonte, but they were chasing the game after Pablo Armero had put Colombia ahead after only five minutes with a deflected goal.
Panagiotis Kone and Vassilis Torosidis went close to equalising, but Theofanis Gekas missed the chance to reduce a two-goal deficit when he headed against the crossbar with 27 minutes remaining.
"You can't make excuses when you lose 3-0," Santos reflected. "We had good spells of play and all we can do now is look at the next matches."
Kone rued his side's inability to convert possession into goals, adding, "The score doesn't show it, but I think we played well.
"But these games are turned on the details, and they didn't work for us today. We're still proud to be here, and we'll continue to play hard."
Greece must get something from their meeting with Japan in Natal on Thursday to retain hope of getting out of the group, and goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis agreed with Kone about their performance in defeat to the slick Colombians.
"We should have done better in the finishing, I don't think we were worth a 3-0 defeat. But unfortunately that's football. There are three games, we only lost one. It's a big success to be here, but we have to win too."
