Ioannis Maniatis of Greece is congratulated by his teammates.

Greece looked a completely different XI to the group that lost 1-0 in Sydney on Saturday night. Petros Mantalos opened the scoring in the eighth minute, after Andreas Samaris and Apostolos Vellios swiftly punished Mark Milligan for turning the ball over in midfield.

Trent Sainsbury scored from a corner to set-up an interesting final half hour, but in arguably the worst performance of the Ange Postecoglou era, it was a deserving win for the touring side.

Greece came out of the blocks quicker, the Socceroos struggled with their early intensity and were then frustrated by a match punctuated by plenty of niggly fouls. In a stop-start, physical game, the Socceroos gave away 16 fouls, and the Greeks 26, and were never able to find their full stride.

Greece's Andreas Samaris gives Australia's Apostolos Giannou a kiss after fouling him. Picture: George SalpigtidisSource:News Corp Australia

“They got a jump on us and we didn’t react well,” Postecoglou told Fox Sports.

“We were sucked into playing their game ... giving away silly fouls.

“We lost our composure.”
He added: “It’s disappointing we didn’t have a better reaction.”

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The performance will provide Postecoglou plenty to think about ahead of World Cup qualification resuming on September 1 against Iraq, with the men in gold struggling with the pressure they endured from Greece’s pressing as they tried to play the ball out from the back.

A number of Socceroos were guilty of turning the ball over under pressure, but with Adam Federici well off his line, Maniatis pinched the ball off Robbie Kruse 60 metres from goal and caught the Bournemouth keeper out with an astonishing strike.

Postecoglou, however, took the blame for the goal.

Ioannis Maniatis of Greece is congratulated.Source:Getty Images

He told Fox Sports: “That’s my responsibility. Every now and again we’ll get caught but that’s not Adam’s fault, that’s mine.”

Despite having the majority of the ball, it was an unusually ponderous Socceroos outfit. The side lacked width, and played too many rushed balls down the middle.

Things improved slightly in the second-half but Greece held on to win.

With Samaris pulling the strings, Sokratis Papastathopoulos defending immensely and Vasilis Torosidis inspirational down the right, Greece, who missed out on Euro 2016, showed what they are capable of and inflictied just Australia’s second loss on home turf in 34 matches.

Re-live how the night unfolded in our live blog below.