Greece

Confederation: UEFA (Europe)
Head Coach: Otto Rehhagel
Captain: Georgios Karagounis
Group: B

The Greeks are undoubtedly one of the tournaments underdogs. Having featured in only one other World Cup, USA ’94, the nation doesn’t have too much experience in high pressure tournaments. During USA ’94 they failed to win a single game losing to; Argentina, Bulgaria and Nigeria – also failing to score in any game.

Greece have recently tasted success though, winning UEFA EURO 2004 against a strong Portuguese side. Much like this World Cup, they weren’t given a chance of getting out of the group stages, never mind going all the way and being the eventual winners.
Despite a strong start to their qualifying campaign the Greeks had to settle for a play-off place against Ukraine to determine their fate. After a goalless first leg in Athens they managed to grab a one goal win away in Ukraine.

The Greeks do have some good players and they won’t simply be there to make the numbers up, make no doubt about it they’ll be giving the tournament their all. They boast the top scorer from the Euro zone qualification campaign; Theofanis Gekas, who scored more than the highly rated Spain striker David Villa and England’s Wayne Rooney, bagging himself ten goals.

Greece will have to perform as well as they did back in 2004 if they are to get out of what looks like a very tough group which includes; Argentina, Nigeria and Korea Republic – two of the sides which helped to knock Greece out of USA 1994.

Squad (23)

Goalkeepers: Michalis Sifakis (Aris Salonika), Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos), Kostas Chalkias (PAOK Salonika).

Defenders: Giorgos Seitaridis (Panathinaikos), Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos), Evangelos Moras (Bologna), Socrates Papastathopoulos (Genoa), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Liverpool), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos), Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), Nikos Spiropoulos (Panathinaikos), Stelios Malezas (PAOK Salonika).

Midfielders: Kostas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Siena), Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos), Christos Patsatzoglou (Omonia), Sakis Prittas (Aris Salonika).

Forwards: Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg), Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Pantelis Kapetanos (Steaua Bucharest), Theofanis Gekas (Hertha Berlin), Giorgos Samaras (Celtic).

Carl Leighton