PARIS: A Belgium side missing many of the stars that have helped them rise to the top of FIFA’s world rankings were held 1-1 by Greece in a Euro 2020 warm-up on Thursday, a disappointing result for the Belgians against a team which has not qualified for the tournament.

For his first friendly ahead of the delayed tournament starting on June 11 coach Roberto Martinez was without injured trio Kevin De Bruyne (facial fractures), Eden Hazard (thigh), and Axel Witsel (Achilles).

The former Everton boss also chose to give the night off to Thibaut Courtois (with Simon Mignolet in goal), and Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Vermaelen in defence.

Those that were in Brussels had the chance to press their case for a place in Martinez’s line-up for their June 12 opener against Russia.

Like Hazard’s younger brother Thorgan, who started and supplied the finishing touch to the move that put Belgium into a 20th minute lead after Romelu Lukaku was denied at point blank range by Greek goalkpeer Odysseas Vlachodimosv.

Georgios Tzavellas levelled for the unscripted winners of Euro 2004 midway through the second half, tapping in Kyriakos Papadopoulos’ diving header which hit the woodwork.

Martinez will be looking for a sharper performance in the Red Devil’s second friendly against Croatia on Sunday.

Belgium romped through to the finals as group winners with a 40-goal haul.

After their Group ‘B’ opener in Saint Petersburg they go on to face Denmark and Finland.

Earlier, Ukraine clung on to an early lead to beat Northern Ireland 1-0. That ended a run of four 1-1 draws for Ukraine, who were frustrated not to score more after dominating possession.

Oleksandr Zubkov scored the only goal of the game with a header in the 10th when he was left unmarked at the far post to meet a cross from deep.

Ukraine takes on the Netherlands, North Macedonia and Austria in Group ‘C’ at Euro 2020.

Turkey made it six games undefeated as they beat Moldova 2-0. Moldova had chances to score on the counter in the first half before Burak Yilmaz, fresh from winning the Ligue 1 with Lille, scored Turkey’s first goal in the 58th. Cengiz Under added a second 19 minutes later.

Mario Gavranovic scored a hat trick as Switzerland cruised to a 7-0 win over their tiny neighbours Liechtenstein. Switzerland and Turkey are in Euro 2020 Group ‘A’ with Wales and Italy.

Elsewhere the Republic of Ireland came back from a surprise goal down in Andorra to win 4-1.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2021