Konstantinos Mitroglou scored in either half as Greece established a two-goal advantage over Romania in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying playoff in Athens.

The Olympiacos striker and Dimitris Salpingidis scored either side of Bogdan Stancu's reply for the visitors to give the 2004 European Champions a 2-1 lead at the break, and a second from Mitroglou increased Greece's cushion for the reverse leg in Bucharest on Tuesday.

It was an action-packed start at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, with three goals scored inside the first 21 minutes, the first of which was Mitroglou's fifth in as many games.

Romania failed to clear a Georgios Samaras free kick, and Salpingidis picked out Mitroglou's clever run to the back post for him to fire a composed volley across goal and into the bottom corner on 15 minutes.

Salpingidis soon added his own name to the scoresheet, but only after Stancu, preferred in attack to former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu, equalised by squeezing in a header from a tight angle four minutes later.

Greece's lead was restored within 90 seconds, though, when the provider of their first goal applied the finish to a swift counter-attack by cutting inside to collect Vasilis Torosidis's pass and find the net.

Four players were booked before the break in a feisty match in which Romania ended with 10 men courtesy of Costin Lazar's late dismissal, which came after Mitroglou had strengthened Greece's position in the tie.

A Romanian defence without captain and Tottenham Hotspur defender Vlad Chiriches again failed to clear a set piece which was flicked on to the back post, where Mitroglou completed his brace from close range.

Bogdan Lobont denied the Greek striker a third on 74 minutes, but there was still time for things to get worse for the visitors when Lazar was sent off for two bookings in the final three minutes.