Our prediction for this World Cup 2026 match:
Greece
Match Time & Date:
5 September 2025
19:45
Prediction: 3-0
Belarus
Greece play host to Belarus at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in the opening match of their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. Greece are seen as hot favourites to win Friday’s qualifier, but boss Ivan Jovanovic must warn his men against complacency. A man to keep an eye on in the home team will be Vangelis Pavlidis, who has been scoring goals for fun with Benfica in the early stages of the new Primeira Liga campaign.
The likes of Tasos Bakasetas (Panathinaikos), Dinos Mavropanos (West Ham), and Christos Tzolis (Club Brugge) made the cut as well. Belarus, on the other hand, are not considered a team to beat in Group C. As Carlos Alos’ men are not regarded as good travellers, we do not believe that they are capable of spoiling Greece’s party in Athens. When the two teams met in a friendly nine years ago, Belarus defeated Greece 1-0, meaning that the hosts are hungry for revenge.
Highlighted Team (Greece):
Former European champions Greece played their first official match on April 7, 1929, with the team suffering a heavy 4-1 loss to Italy in Athens. The Greeks booked their place at the FIFA World Cup finals in 1994 for the first time ever, but they failed to impress at the showpiece tournament in United States of America.
The Galanolefki were eliminated in the group stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup as well, but they made it to the knockout stages of the tournament in Brazil four years later. However, the Greeks were more than unfortunate not to book their place in the quarter-finals as they were beaten by Costa Rica on penalties. However, Greece did remarkably well to win the 2004 European Championship and that is considered the national team’s biggest success.
Otto Rehhagel outplayed the likes of France and Czech Republic in the knockout stages to set up a meeting with hosts Portugal in the title game. Thanks to Angelos Charisteas’ goal 12 minutes into the second half Greece won the European Championship.
Georgia 
Turkey
Bulgaria 
Spain
Liechtenstein
Belgium
Luxembourg 
Northern Ireland 
Netherlands 
Poland 
Slovakia 
Germany
