Team Overview

Football in Greece, as in many countries of the world, is the most popular sport. The local teams, especially Olympiacos and Panathinaikos attract thousands of fans to the stadiums and after Greece’s European title in 2004.

History

Euro 1980

Atlhough The Hellenic Football Federation – the organization the rules the Greek football – was created in 1926 and became a FIFA member one year later, only in 1980 the National Team had its first appearance in a major tournament. Greece qualified for the Euro 1980 as first of the group. A group that also featured the Soviet Union and Hungary, two of the strongest football teams of western Europe at the time.

The Hellenic team, coached by Alketas Panagoulias was drawn to group A in the final tournament along with Holland, West Germany and Czechoslovakia, certainly a tough group for the Greek.

On the first game Greece managed to hold a 0-0 tie with Holland until the middle of the second half when Kist scored the winning goal to the Dutch. In the second game against Czechoslovakia the story repeated: 1-1 in the first half but the final result would be 3-1 for the Czechs. Greece’s participation in the Euro 1980 would finish after a 0-0 draw with West Germany and the Greeks left the competiton leaving a good impression in their debut.

1994 World Cup disaster

Greece’s first appearance in a FIFA World Cup finals gave their fanatic supporters a lot of expectations after the team went undefeated in their qualifying group and ended in first place. Alketas Panagoulias was again assigned as the coach to continue the success. But Panagoulias decision to take and experienced but also aging team became a disaster. Competing at the highest level of the world’s football Greece ended up losing all the three matches of the group fase: 4-0 to Argentina, 4-0 Bulgaria and 2-0 to Nigeria. Greece were eliminated on the first round with zerop points and not scoring one single goal and allowing 10. One of the worst performance in the history of World Cups.

Greece arrived in the competition with bookmakers giving odds of 80-1 to 150-1. Nobody expected much from the Hellenic team and if one looked at the team’s poor performance at the 1994 World Cup and the absence from all other international competitions since then it’s easy to understand why.

The Hellenic team of German coach Otto Rehhagel had an experienced team with players like goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis and midfielder Theodoros Zagorakis but also counted on young talented strikers Angelos Charisteas and Dimitrios Papadopoulos upfront.

In the opening ceremony the Portuguese displayed a ship to represent the country’s crusaders that traveled all over the planet in the 15th century. The opening match happened right after between Greece and the host nation, Portugal. With a display of disciplined football Greece beat Portugal 2-1 and inspired the fans to create the team’s nickname: “the pirate ship”.

More surprises happened in the tournament such as Italy, Spain and Germany falling short in the group stage and getting knocked out of the competition. But the ultimate surprise was still to come. Greece continued giving its opponents Pandora’s boxes and qualified to face title holders France in the quarterfinals. At minute 65, experienced team captain Theodoros Zagorakis executed a perfect cross to a header goal from striker Angelos Charisteas. The Greeks held the advantage until the end and became the first team to beat the host nation and the title holders in the history of the European Nations Cup.

Greece moved on to face Czech Republic in the semifinals. The Czechs with Milan Barros, Pavel Nedved and Peter Cech were the only ones to win all their games in the Euro 2004 so far. And it took 104 minutes for the Greeks to stop that winning streak. At the last minute of the first half of extra time, after a 0-0 in the 90 minutes, defender Traianos Dellas scored the winning silver goal with a header from a corner. The Pirate Ship was sailing to the finals.

The final match would then repeat the opening one and Portugal and Greece lined up to face each other at Estadio da Luz in Libon. 63,000 people crowded the stands expecting the home team to win. Somebody should have told Greece about that. At minute 57, after a goalesss first half, Angelos Charisteas scored a header goal from a corner giving the Greeks the lead. The Hellenic team held the socre until the final whistle and the team in its second participation the the European Nations Cup lifted the Trophy in one of the greates upsets in the history of football.

After the incredible success in the 2004 Euro, Greece jumped from the 35th to the 14th position in the FIFA Ranking in one month. The team received meldals from the president of Greece and football was featured in a official Greek Post Office stamp.

In 2005 Greece represented Wurope in the Confederations Cup and the competition was used to renovate the team and try new players. The team lost 3-0 to Brazil, 1-0 to Japan and draw 0-0 with Mexico but that didn’t really bother the fans and the Greek press as they understood that it was all part of the preparation for the team to face the 2006 World Cup qualifying.

Things didn’t go as planned for Greece in the qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Right at their first match they lost 1-0 to a weak side of Albania and two draws, against Turkey and Ukraine, followed. With an incosistent campaign, Greece finished in 4th place in its group, 4 points behind leader Ukraine and didn’t qualify to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Euro 2008

One could say that Greece was lucky in the draw for the qualifying group of the Euro 1008. The team was the highest ranked team in a group that also had Turkey, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova and Malta. The Helenic team start the campaing with 3 wins in row against Moldova, Norway and Bosnia-Herzegovina respectively. The fourth game was against their eternal rivals Turkey and a 4-1 loss shook the Greek team. Three other wins and a draw brought peace back to the squad and they were able then to have their revenge and outclass Turkey bring home a 1-0 victory against their rivals.

In the end Greece qualified in great style in the first place of the group with 31 points. The monst points gained among all the groups. For the final tournament in Russia, Greece was draw as first seed for being the title contenders. Sweden, Spain and host nation Russia are in the group D with Greece.

Stars of the Current Squad

Antonios Nikopolidis

• Date of Birth: October 14, 1971
• Position: Goalkeeper
• Height: 188cm
• About: at Panatinaikos since 1991, he made is debut in the Greek national team only in 1999. Nikopolidis was elected Best Goalkeeper at Euro 2004, where he gained the winners’ medal. After Euro 2004, he moved to Olympiacos, where he won 2 doubles. After Zagorakis’ retirement, the goalkeeper became the captain of the Greek national team.

Georgios Seitaridis

• Date of Birth: June 4, 1981
• Position: right back
• Height: 185cm
• About: after his first years at Giannina, he was signe by Panathinaikos in 2001. In Euro 2004, was one of the best youngsters, and it was curious he signed with Porto, while his team was beating the host twice. After one year he was sold by Dynamo Moscow, but his Russian campaign was not successful and he played last season at Atletico Madrid.

Angelos Basinas

• Date of Birth: January 3, 1976
• Position: midfielder
• Height: 180cm
• About: Basinas started playing in the Panathinaikos youth academy, and remained there since January 2006 when he joined Mallorca during the transfer window. One of the heroes of Euro 2004, Basinas kicked the corner when Charisteas scored the decisive goal against Portugal.

Angelos Charisteas

• Date of Birth: February 9, 1980
• Position: striker
• Height: 190cm
• About: he will be remembered as the scorer in a European Championship final, and he is also a globetrotter in the last few years: after leaving Werder Bremen in 2005, he joined Ajax as Ibrahimovic’s successor, but he became 5th striker and he moved to Feyenoord. Now he has joined Nurnberg, but it seems that the Euro 2004 was the highest point of his career.

Team Legends

Zagorakis

• Full Name: Theodoros Zagorakis
• Date of Birth: October 27, 1971
• Position: Defensive Midfielder
• Caps: 120
• Goals: 3

Kofidis

• Full Name: Savvas Kofidis
• Date of Birth: February 5, 1961
• Position: Midfielder
• Caps: 67
• Goals: 1

Anastopoulos

• Full Name: Nikos Anastopoulos
• Date of Birth: January 22, 1958
• Position: Striker
• Caps: 73
• Goals: 29

Apostolakis

• Full Name: Stratos Apostolakis
• Date of Birth: May 17, 1964
• Position: Defender/Defensive Midfielder
• Caps: 96
• Goals: 5

Sarakavos

• Full Name: Dimitrios Saravakos
• Date of Birth: July 29, 1961
• Position: Striker/Attacking Midfielder
• Caps: 78
• Goals: 22

Most International Matches Played

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Team Honours

European Nations Championship

• 2004: Champions

Management

Head Coach: Otto Rehhagel

Rehhagel stopped his career as a player in 1972, three years later started to coach, but his first golden age was in Bremen, where he won two German Bundesliga in 1985 and 1988, and a Cup Winner’s Cup in 1993. He betrayed Bremen to join Bayern, but his single year in Munich was disappointing as he was replaced by Franz Beckenbauer. Then, he joined Kaiserslautern, just fallen down to 2.nd division, but he acme back immediately to 1st division and won a historical Bundesliga, the only one won by a newcomer. He has been named Greek national team coach in 2001, and he won an incredible tournament in Portugal. He’s been confirmed even after his failure in qualifying to Germany 2006 World Cup.

Uniforms

Important Links

• http://www.epo.gr (in Greek)
• http://www.epo.gr/default_uk.asp (in English)

References

• http://www.greeceindex.com/sports/greek_football_federation.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece_national_football_team
• http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=gre/index.html