Sporting Kansas City's Nico Hasler helped the Liechtenstein Men's National Team secure its first point of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying on Sunday, assisting Dennis Salanovic's 85th-minute equalizer in a 1-1 draw against Greece at Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Making his 63rd senior international appearance, Hasler played the full 90 minutes in an advanced midfield position for the second time in three days, having done so in a 5-0 loss at Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday.
The 28-year-old Hasler shouldered an instrumental role on Sunday, contributing to a resolute defensive effort against the Greeks before playing an inch-perfect through ball into the path of Salanovic for the game-tying strike with five minutes remaining.
Liechtenstein are 0-5-1 through six Euro qualifying matches in Group J and have next to no chance of the requisite top-two finish to qualify for next summer's Euro 2020 tournament, but Sunday's hard-earned stalemate in the Greek capital will go down as one of the country's best results in recent memory. The draw snapped Liechtenstein's five-game losing skid and gave the country its first point since tying Armenia 2-2 in the UEFA Nations League last November.
Hasler, who has garnered Liechtensteiner Footballer of the Year honors in 2015, 2017 and 2018, will now rejoin Sporting for the club's remaining five fixtures of the 2019 MLS regular season. The decisive stretch of games begins next Sunday when Manager Peter Vermes' men visit the LA Galaxy in a nationally televised clash on FS1 at 9 pm. CT.
