Soccer-Greece keep up perfect start with win over Lithuania

ATHENS, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Greece maintained their winning

start to World Cup qualifying after goals from Sotiris Ninis and

Kostas Mitroglou secured a 2-0 victory over Lithuania at the

Georgios Karaiskakis stadium on Tuesday.

Fernando Santos's side joined Group G rivals Bosnia on six

points from two matches and the two teams now meet in the next

round of fixtures on Oct. 12.

Greece went into the game on the back of an opening 2-1 win

over Latvia in Riga on Friday although that result came at a

price as Celtic striker Georgios Samaras suffered an injury to

his left arm and was ruled out against Lithuania.

Santos opted to field Fanis Gekas as a lone striker on

Tuesday with Ninis playing just behind him.

The move paid off as man of the match Ninis scored the first

goal and laid on the second.

Kostas Fortounis missed the best chance of the opening

period when he was played in by Ninis only to see his low shot

parried by keeper Zydrunas Karcemarskas.

Mitroglou replaced Giannis Maniatis at halftime and the

striker made an immediate impression, forcing two fine saves

from Karcemarskas from headers.

The deadlock was broken 10 minutes into the second half

thanks to a moment of individual skill from Ninis as he skipped

past two Lithuanian defenders before drilling a right-foot shot

into the corner of the net.

Mitroglou made it 2-0 with 18 minutes left when he

side-footed home after playing a neat one-two with Ninis on the

edge of the box.