Hearts' Alexandros Kyziridis basks in Greece debut against giants and take stock after 'life lesson'
Winger comes on as substitute in defeat by Italy
Hearts winger Alexandros Kyziridis capped off a “very good season” by making his international debut for Greece on Sunday night.
Kyziridis came on as a 62nd-minute substitute for Georgios Masouras during the 1-0 friendly defeat by Italy at Pankritio Stadium in Heraklion.
The 25-year-old was unable to help Greece find an equaliser against the Italians, who took the lead on 18 minutes through young striker Francesco Pio Esposito but played the last 25 minutes with ten men following a red card for teenage defender Luca Reggiani.
Nevertheless, it was a moment to savour for Kyziridis, who moved to Hearts a year ago from Zemplín Michalovc in the Slovakian league and is now one of the main men for the Tynecastle club. He played a key part in the Gorgie side finishing second in the Premiership this season.
Speaking to Greek media after the match, Kyziridis said: “It’s been a very good season for me. My baby was born, the team (Hearts) did very well, I was called up to the national team. We didn’t win the championship in the last game, but everything is a lesson in life and we continue.”
Asked how he felt on the game against Italy, Kyziridis continued. “Mixed. Definitely happy to have made my first appearance with the national team, but we lost and I can’t be 100 per cent happy, but that’s life, that’s football and we move on.”
“Okay, we are trying things out. I think that in the second half we deserved more from the game, but that’s how it is when you don’t score goals, the one goal you concede is enough to lose the game”.
“The atmosphere [in the dressing room] is excellent, the guys are very good. From the first moment they made me feel at home and I think that the team has a future and we will move forward”.
Jovanovic has his say on Greece
Kyziridis, who was an unused substitute on Friday night in a 2-2 draw with World Cup-bound Sweden, will hope that he has done enough to remain in head coach Ivan Jovanovic’s plans for the rest of the year. Greece won promotion to Nations League A at the expense of Scotland last year and are in a group with Germany, Netherlands and Serbia.
“There weren’t enough positives, most of them were negatives,” a frank Jovanovic said after the match. “From the beginning, what we wanted to do, we couldn’t do.
“We were turning into a low block for no particular reason. We gave the field to Italy and from a position we were in in the first half it was difficult to be active. We were running for no reason to cover the spaces and when we had the ball we had no solution, no idea how to develop our game.
“The first 45 minutes were completely different compared to Sweden. That’s why we changed our formation in the second half. There was an effort there, but it doesn’t leave us satisfied.”
“If you look at the friendlies we played last year here in Crete, we used two starting lineups. The same in March and now because we want a good impression from all the players.
“The easy thing would have been not to make many changes and to go for the result. We wanted the players to have the necessary time to have a better impression of the roster and the right players for the games in September, which is the next big competition.
“ We will play for the first time in League A where we have opponents of a much higher level. It was useful, it was good. We may not have played well, but I have confidence in the players. All the kids deserve to be here to be in the national team. And we can have a better picture of their situation and their future. Our concerns are that the kids have playing time so that we can be ready in all aspects”.
“The behavior of the players in our camp. Impeccable professionals. Willing to train and formal. Willing to represent their country. When a season ends, the June matches are the most difficult.
“We all want good results, we want victories, there are games that we can lose. We lost not only because the opponent was good but also because we did not play the game we could. I am sorry that we did not complete everything that we did these days.
“In the first half we were out of the game and at halftime we had to change our formation and our playing profile. I expected that we could play an entire game in the same way today.”
Kyziridis, who becomes the first Hearts player to be capped for Greece since left-back Takis Fyssas, will now get a short holiday before returning to pre-season training with Hearts later this month.
He was not the only Hearts player on international duty over the weekend. Midfielder Cammy Devlin, who is weighing up a contract extension from the Tynecastle hierarchy, played the last eight minutes of Australia’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland, while veteran goalkeeper Craig Gordon was an unused substitute in Scotland’s 4-0 win over Bolivia.
Derek McInnes’ side are yet to announce their full schedule, but they have the second round of the Champions League qualifiers to look forward to in late July, where they will play either Turkish side Fenerbahce of Sturm Graz of Austria.