Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos made his senior international debut for Greece at the weekend, starting against Honduras.

Konstantinos Mavropanos in training with the Greece national team (Photo via Mavropanos on Twitter)
Konstantinos Mavropanos in training with the Greece national team (Photo via Mavropanos on Twitter)

Greece named Konstantinos Mavropanos in their starting lineup for the first team in his career on Sunday, giving him a game in their friendly match against Honduras.

The on-loan Arsenal centre-back earned a senior international call-up with his encouraging recent performances for Stuttgart, but he evidently needs to work his way into the Greek first-choice side. This was a chance to make a positive first impression.

The good news is that Greece won the match 2-1. Though they failed to keep a clean sheet, they’ll certainly be happy with the final result.

Local reports varied in their assessments of Mavropanos’ performance specifically.

Gazzetta.gr write that the defender “could have reacted better at certain moments”, and the Cypriot Sport-FM highlight a first-half mistake he made that led to a Honduras attempt at goal.

But the Greek edition of the same outlet gave Mavropanos a solid six out of 10 for his performance, reporting that though he “started the match sluggishly”, he then improved and outperformed his centre-back partner.

Meanwhile, SDNA write that Mavropanos was “very positive” and “mature” and showed he can be a key member of the side in the future.

Overall, the impression is that there were some understandable debut jitters, but signs of the player he can be for his country once he grows into the role.