Soto's Greece earn first win

Sotirios Kyrgiakos played a commanding role as Greece came from behind to beat Nigeria 2-1 and give themselves a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the World Cup.

Liverpool's No.16 played the full 90 minutes as the Greeks battled bravely to keep their last 16 hopes alive.

With both teams losing their opening Group B fixtures at the hands of South Korea and Argentina respectively, the race to join Diego Maradona's side in the last 16 was well and truly on.

Played at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, both sides adopted a cautious approach with the fear of losing very much apparent, and it took a freak goal to liven things up.

Nigeria opened the scoring after 15 minutes when a free-kick from Kalu Uche, curled in from the left wing, evaded everybody in the box and ended up in the back of the net.

Nigeria were reduced to 10 men after 33 minutes when Sani Kaita was shown a straight red for kicking out.

Greece came close to an equaliser six minutes before half-time when Vincent Salpigidis got clear but was denied by a point-blank stop from Enyeama.

Celtic striker Giorgas Samaras went even closer from the resulting corner when his effort was hacked off the line.

The pressure of the extra man told and a minute before the break Greece found their salvation with the equaliser, and, again there was a great deal of luck involved in the goal. Salpigidis's shot took a wicked deflection to evade Enyeama and find the net.

Both sides had chances to win the game in the second half. Kyrgiakos headed straight at Enyeama from a corner and the Nigeria stopper then made a brilliant save to keep out Fanis Gekas.

Straight up the other end Yakubu found himself clean through but was denied by Alexandros Tzorvas, before Chinedu Obasi missed an absolute sitter from the rebound when he missed the target.

Greece got their winner 20 minutes from time when Vassilas Torosidis slotted home from close range after the previously faultless Enyeama horribly spilled a weak shot.

Next up for Kyrgiakos is an Anfield reunion with Javier Mascherano and Maxi on Tuesday when Greece take on Argentina in the final group game.

Breakdown of key contributions from Kyrgiakos:

1 min: Powerful headed clearance from a long ball forward

3 min: Carries the ball forward and passes into midfield

7 min: Good covering play to block off an intended forward pass for Everton's Yakubu

20 min: Penalised for an attempted rugby tackle just outside the box. No yellow card is shown though

22 min: Climbs high to meet a cross but his header lands well wide of the post

30 min: Meets a free-kick from the right-wing, but under pressure from Danny Shittu, the ball hits the top of his head and sails high over the bar

54 min: A corner picks out Soto at the back post but he heads straight at the 'keeper

77 min: Joins the attack and passes the ball out the right wing with a nice lay-off

81 min: Leaning back fires an attempted shot over the bar from close range

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