Greece host Italy at the Pankritio Stadium on June 7, 2026, in an international friendly that kicks off at 3:00 PM ET. For Ivan Jovanovic, it is a home match that offers a chance to settle his side after a run that has been more uneven than anyone in Athens would want.
That is why greece vs italy is drawing attention now: the start time is fixed, the venue is known, and viewers in the United States have two streaming options, Fubo and Tubi. The timing also matters because Greece and Italy are meeting in a summer window when each is trying to get something useful out of a one-off fixture rather than a tournament group or a league campaign.
Jovanovic will take Greece into the game after a 2-2 draw with Sweden on June 4. It was a result that followed a 0-0 draw with Hungary in March, a 3-2 win over Scotland in World Cup qualifying, and losses to Paraguay and Belarus in their last five matches. Greece have won just one of those five games, sit at W1-D2-L2 over that span, and have scored five goals while conceding five.
That makes the friendly more than a date on the calendar for the hosts. Jovanovic is looking for a more controlled performance at home, not another game that opens up and leaves his side chasing the final moments. Greece have shown they can compete, but the recent record says they have not yet found a rhythm they can trust from one match to the next.
Italy bring a different kind of uncertainty to Crete. They arrive without a permanent head coach, with Silvio Baldini overseeing the side on an interim basis after a 1-0 win over Luxembourg in their most recent outing. Before that, there was a 4-1 loss to Norway and a draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina in World Cup qualifying, results that have given the summer schedule extra weight even with no points table attached to this match.
Italy’s absence from the 2026 World Cup sharpens that feeling. What happens next remains the biggest unanswered piece: how they will line up in Crete, and who will be leading them long term. For now, the only certainty is the setting, the kickoff and the pressure both teams carry into a game that can still tell them something useful before the summer moves on.
