Greece show up Norway

A series of defensive errors cost the Norwegian national football team dearly in their friendly match against Greece, as the so-called "Drillos" led by coach Egil "Drillo" Olsen fell to a 3-2 defeat in front of their home fans in Oslo.
The match was both teams' final chance to warm up before the qualification groups for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil kick off this autumn. Norwegian fans are now more likely to look forward to the qualifying campaign with trepidation after the loss against Greece.
Greece, which shocked the footballing world when they won the European Championships in 2004, came into Wednesday's match off the back of a surprisingly impressive performance at the European Championships in Ukraine and Poland this summer, where they were eventually well beaten in their quarter-final against Germany. That ironic parallel with Germany's dominant position over the country in the Eurozone crisis was not lost on Norwegian anti-EU campaigners Nei til EU (No to the EU), who planned to hand out leaflets at the match in Oslo supporting ordinary Greeks in the face of "all too hard" pressure from Brussels.
It was experienced heads that let Norway down with sloppy defending from the very start. Riise has often been criticised for his defensive inadequacies and the first goal had its origins in his key weaknesses, as Greek right-back Vassilis Torosidis easily turned the full-back inside out before crossing the ball at pace. The cross appeared to be going safely towards Jarstein in the Norwegian goal, but the goalkeeper had left too much room at his near post and failed to get back in time, bundling the ball clumsily across his own line.
Four minutes later things looked even worse for Norway, as veteran defender Hangeland was caught half asleep from a free kick, lazily letting Greece's centre-back Kyriakos Papadopoulos get away from him and plant a header beyond Jarstein from a few yards out. 2-0 down, it was a nightmare start for Norway - but this seemed to galvanise Riise and Hangeland, whose determination to make amends found its reward just three minutes later when, following the Greeks' failure to clear their lines from a corner, the ball fell to Hangeland on the volley on the edge of the box, which he dispatched, via a deflection, into the back of the net.
After half-time, landslaget was again looking fragile at the back. When Greek substitute Kostantinos Mitroglou found himself through on goal, Jarstein looked to have avenged his earlier mistake by standing up well and preventing a third goal. But just minutes later, Jarstein let a hard but ultimately entirely saveable shot from Mitroglou fly through his fingers into the top of the net from a tight angle, again handing the Greeks the advantage on a silver platter. The calamity of errors seemed to be infectious, with Moa missing a golden opportunity from close range at the other end just minutes later. It would take veteran Riise, still smarting after his earlier defensive embarrassment, to bring Norway back into the game after 75 minutes, when he provided the perfect scissor-kick volleyed finish to a determined run and cross from Nordtveit. With the score standing at 3-2, the record-equalling legend seemed motivated to drive forward for an equaliser, but was inexplicably moved to centre-back by Drillo when the manager chose, for reasons undefined, to bring on full-back Espen Ruud for the final minutes of the game. This effectively diminished Riise's ability to influence the game and thus Norway's too, leading to a full-time result of a 3-2 defeat.