Euro champions brought back down to earth

A great summer for Greek sport came to a shuddering halt tonight.

Otto Rehhagel’s European champions were the victims in one of international football’s greatest ever shocks as they lost 2-1 in Albania in their opening World Cup qualifier.

It was a reminder of how quickly footballing fortunes can change, with the Greeks unable to recover from conceding two early goals.

Ardian Aliaj and Edvin Murati netted after 11 and 12 minutes, and although Bolton’s Stelios Giannakopoulos got on the scoresheet in the 39th minute, Greece were unable to muster an equaliser.

Greece rose to 14th in the FIFA world rankings on the back of their Euro 2004 glory, 80 places above Albania, but they ran into a stubborn home defence and must now regroup for Wednesday’s home match against Turkey, a contest which could go a long way to deciding the appearance of Group 2.

The new-look France side made a stuttering start to competitive life under Raymond Domenech, being held to a goalless group four draw in the Stade de France by Israel.

With Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly, Bixente Lizarazu and Lilian Thuram having retired from international football following Euro 2004, France were almost unrecognisable in some departments, particularly defence, and it showed.

Newcomer Luca Toni notched Italy’s winner as the Azzurri came from behind to overcome Norway 2-1 in group five, the group which also saw Slovenia thrash Moldova 3-0 with a hat-trick from Tottenham’s Milenko Acimovic – currently on loan with French club Lille.

Meanwhile, the Greeks seemed to get off lightly with their defeat in Tirana, because group two’s other games all finished all square, meaning Greece have not lost too much ground on their likely qualification rivals.

The match between Denmark and Ukraine, and that involving Turkey and Georgia, both finished 1-1. Turkey had Hasan Sas sent off in their game and conceded a leveller five minutes from time.

In group seven, Chelsea’s Mateja Kezman drew a blank against San Marino, but a 3-0 victory for Serbia & Montenegro should make up for his personal disappointment.

The night’s remaining matches in group three – Portugal’s group – saw Estonia beat Luxembourg 3-0 and Russia held to a 1-1 draw in Moscow by Slovakia.