Greece Profile

285 Comments / Uncategorized / By

Greece visit Dublin on Friday as Ireland attempt to avenge a 2-1 defeat in Athens in June.

The Greek national team are controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Traditionally the team is referred to as Ethniki, which means ‘National’ or Galanolefki which means ‘Blue/white’.

The first official match (recognised by FIFA) of the Greek national side was against Sweden in the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp. This resulted in a heavy defeat, with Greece losing 9-0.

Between 1929 and 1936, Greece took part in six Balkan Cups. Between 1949 and 1958 they participated in three Mediterranean Cups. In 1951 Greece won the Mediterranean Games, defeating both Syria and then hosts Egypt on their way to the title.

Greece’s first appearance at a major tournament was at Euro 1980 in Italy. Although they finished bottom of their group with one point, they did secure a highly creditable 0-0 draw against the eventual winners West Germany.

They failed to qualify for the next six consecutive tournaments, before qualifying for the 1994 World Cup in the USA, where again they finished bottom of their group, as they were soundly beaten by Argentina, Bulgaria, and Nigeria. Their following two World Cup Finals appearances (in 2010 and 2014) resulted in group stage elimination and then an exit in the round of 16.

Greece’s finest hour came when they won the 2004 European Championship. Under the guidance of Coach Otto Rehhagel, the Greeks pulled off a miracle, defeating the hosts Portugal not once, but twice in the tournament, winning the final 1-0 with a goal from Angelos Charisteas. They then qualified for a further two European Championships in 2008 (eliminated in the group stages) and in 2012 (knocked out in the quarter finals).



The Greek National Team are currently ranked 51st in the world (between Ivory Coast and Paraguay). With an average ranking of 31st, their highest ranking was 8th and their lowest was 66th. Their record appearance holder is Giorgos Karagounis with 139 caps and record goal scorer is Nikos Anastopolous with 29 goals.

They are currently coached by former Tottenham and Chelsea midfielder Gus Poyet. Tbe highest scorer in the qualifiers in the squad is Giorgos Masouras with 4 goals. Expect to see them line out in a 4-3-3 formation.

The Greeks had a successful campaign in the 2022/2023 iteration of the Nations League, securing promotion to League B by topping their group ahead of Kosovo, Northern Ireland, and Cyprus, and currently sit in 3rd place in European Championship Qualifying Group B with three wins and two defeats. For the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, the Greeks play their games at the OPAP Arena (Agia Sophia Stadium) in Nea Filadelfeia, which is the Home of AEK Athens. With a capacity of 32,500 the stadium is the third largest in Greece.

After the game against Ireland, Greece will play the Netherlands in a qualifier in Athens on Monday 16th October 2023.

Greece Form Guide (last twelve games) – WWLWDLWDWLLW

Head-to-head – Ireland have played Greece four times, drawing one and losing three.

Last meeting – Stephen Kenny’s side suffered a disappointing 2-1 loss on 16th June 2023 which was a big blow to Irelands hopes of qualifying for Euro 2024.
Ireland started tentatively, and Gavin Bazunu was called into action twice in the opening minutes of the game, firstly to deny Dinos Mavropanos and then to turn away an effort from the industrious Anastasios Bakasetas. Greek captain Bakasetas then opened the scoring with a first-half penalty after Callum O’Dowda’s handball.
Ireland were level on the half hour mark when Brighton hot shot Evan Ferguson headed on Will Smallbone’s corner for Nathan Collins to slam home from close range. The goal was initially ruled out for offside, but VAR came to Irelands rescue.
Two long range efforts then gave Bazunu some concern before Greece were back in the lead when the excellent Bakasetas took three Ireland players out of the game with a clever defence splitting pass to release Masouras. The Greek winger curled the ball into the net despite the efforts of Collins on the line.
Matt Doherty missed a good chance to level but fired wide at the near post from Smallbone’s cross. Ireland’s next chance came on 72 minutes when Doherty set up Collins for a drive that was parried away by the Greece goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos.
Greece then missed a couple of big chances to kill the game off, including one for former Celtic striker Giorgios Giakoumakis.
In all, Ireland managed just six shots, compared to Greece’s sixteen. A disappointing night on the pitch was then compounded by Matt Doherty’s red card for violent conduct as he scrapped with Greece’s players in the last moments of the game.

Conclusion – With Stephen Kenny fighting to hold on to his job, this game is a must win for the Manager and the team will be determined to put in a much better performance than they did in Athens. The return of Even Ferguson will boost Ireland and fans will be hoping to catch a glimpse of Sammie Szmodics in action. Prediction – 2-1 win for Ireland.

1,219

285 thoughts on “Greece Profile”

  1. ecommerce

    Wow, awesome blog layout! How lengthy have you been running a blog for?

    you make blogging glance easy. The whole glance of your website is great, let alone the content material!
    You can see similar here dobry sklep

    Reply
  5. sklep internetowy

    Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank
    for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success.
    If you know of any please share. Many thanks!
    You can read similar text here: Najlepszy sklep

    Reply
  6. ecommerce

    Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO?

    I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not
    seeing very good success. If you know of any please share.

    Thanks! You can read similar article here: Sklep online

    Reply
  7. Janis

    Thanks for some other fantastic article. The place else may anyone get that type of information in such
    an ideal manner of writing? I have a presentation subsequent week, and I am on the
    look for such information.

    Reply
  8. Backlink Building

    Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?
    I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains.
    If you know of any please share. Appreciate it!
    I saw similar article here: List of Backlinks

    Reply
  9. Leonel

    Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help
    with SEO? I’m trying to get my website to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m
    not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share.
    Thanks! I saw similar art here: Backlink Portfolio

    Reply
  10. GSA Verified List

    Hey there! Do you know if they make any
    plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization?
    I’m trying to get my site to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very
    good results. If you know of any please share. Thanks! I saw similar text here: GSA List

    Reply
  11. Link Building

    Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with
    SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but
    I’m not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share.
    Thanks! You can read similar text here: List of Backlinks

    Reply
  12. januvia zonder recept aanschaffen

    Just wish to say your article is as amazing. The clearness on your post is just spectacular and that i could suppose you’re
    a professional in this subject. Well together with your
    permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated
    with approaching post. Thank you one million and please keep up the
    gratifying work.

    Reply
  13. najlepszy sklep

    Wow, incredible blog format! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for?
    you made running a blog glance easy. The entire look of your website is fantastic, as well as the content material!
    You can see similar here dobry sklep

    Reply
  14. best escape rooms

    Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO?
    I’m trying to get my website to rank for some targeted
    keywords but I’m not seeing very good success. If you know of
    any please share. Many thanks! You can read similar article here:
    Choose escape room

    Reply
  16. lista escape roomów

    hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here.

    I did however expertise some technical issues using this website, since I experienced to reload the web site many times
    previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK?
    Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords.
    Well I am adding this RSS to my email and could look
    out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content.
    Ensure that you update this again very soon.. Escape roomy lista

    Reply
  50. Preis für glumida in Wien

    With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any issues
    of plagorism or copyright infringement? My blog has a lot of completely unique content I’ve either
    authored myself or outsourced but it looks like a
    lot of it is popping it up all over the internet
    without my agreement. Do you know any solutions to help protect
    against content from being stolen? I’d certainly appreciate it.

    Reply
  218. ходить на руках во сне

    таро богемских котов галерея сонник толкование снов высокий человек верховная жрица таро значение
    в ситуации
    как расшифровать матрицу судьбы
    по дате рождения рассчитать онлайн заговор
    для того чтобы купить квартиру

    Reply
  250. Exterma

    The design of the transgene is based on a previous muscle specific Cre transgene reported by Miniou and colleagues 1999; however, we replaced the Cre cDNA with an inducible form of Cre described by Verrou et al where can i buy priligy in usa The efficacy and safety of ginkgo biloba extract in dementia

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top