UEFA Euro Team Watch – Greece

Greece is placed in Group A this term.The winners of Euro 2004 will try to make their mark in this European Championship with an easy qualification to the quater-finals.

Group A opponents - Poland, Russia, Czech Republic

Past Records in Euro

Greece has been a team to watch after the Euro 2004 triumph. Greece started its European campaign back in 1980, but failed to leave a mark. They failed to qualify in any of the European Championships for 24 years, some of them being the near misses.

Euro 2004

But 2004 was an unimaginable year for the Greece National team. They qualified as group leader in the qualifying round beating the likes of Spain and Ukraine. They grabbed six straight wins in the qualifiers after losing their first two games to do so.

In the group stage, they managed a surprise 2-1 win over Portugal and then a 1-1 draw against Spain. However, they reached the quarter-finals on goals scored, eliminating Spain.

The quarter-final was tougher as they were playing France, who were undefeated and the reigning champions. But they stunned the crowd again with a 2-1 win.

Greece faced Czech Republic in the semi-final. Czech Republic were the only team to defeat all of their opponents to that point, including the wins over Netherlands, Germany and Denmark  and were the  clear favorites to win the trophy at that stage. The game was decided in extra-time with Traianos Dellas scoring the silver goal for Greece.

For the first time in the history of the tournament, the final was a repeat of the opening game. Portugal were the other finalists. They took the control of the game for most of time. But Greece went on to hold the 57^th minute lead given by Charisteas, to win the tournament. Captain Zagorakis was named the man of the tournament, having led Greece and made the most tackles in the entire tournament.

Euro 2008

Greece had an easy run of qualifying matches and progressed to the finals of the competition finishing top of the table.

In the tournament finals, however, they lost all three games and scored only one goal.

Results

Loss Sweden – 2-0

Loss Russia – 1-0

Loss Spain – 2-1

Euro 2012

Road to Qualification
Greece finished the qualifiers at the top of the table ahead of Croatia. With seven wins and three draws in 10 games, they are considered to be rock solid at the back.                                                                   


                                                            Probable Line-up

                                                                       Karnezis

                                     Torosidis - Sokratis - A. Papadopoulos - Holebas

                                         K. Papadopoulos - Katsouranis - Karagounis

                                                          Salpingidis - Samaras

                                                                        Gekas

Most capped Players

Giorgos Karagounis  – 115 caps (8 goals)

Kostas Katsouranis – 89 caps (9 goals)

Nikos Lyberopoulos – 74 caps (13 goals)

Top Goalscorers

Theofanis Gekas – 21 goals

Nikos Lyberopoulos – 13 goals

Kostas Katsouranis – 9 goals

Man To Watch

                                                              

                                                       Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Sokratis is one of the hottest prospects in football at the moment for Greece. He is the youngest ever player  to play in Greek League at 15 years and 283 days. He can play as centre back or defensive midfielder and has already scored 2 times in his 7 international matches. He is the one to watch in the Greek team.