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Eight years on from Greek football’s finest hour, their shock victory over Portugal in the 2004 final, not a great deal has changed in terms of the way the Greek national side goes about it’s business. They remain, dogged, physical, attritional, dangerous from set-plays and largely unappealing to watch. They have however, settled on a formula which works for them. For a country of Greece’s size the qualifying record is excellent since 2004, with the 2006 World Cup the only major tournament to have been missed so far.  

The on-field personnel has gradually changed since that famous victory with only veteran midfielders Karagounis and Katsouranis, both of Panathinaikos, likely to represent the 2004 vintage when Fernando Santos’ side take to the field in the tournaments opener against Poland. The Portuguese coach has been in charge of the side since 2010 but he too, sees no reason to alter the stubborn battling approach which works so well.

Greece qualified for the tournament under Santos as group winners ahead of Croatia. The results are testament to the effectiveness of their tactics. While they scored more than twice, only in the 3-1 home win against Malta, they never conceded more than a solitary goal in any game and shipped a grand total of 5 in the campaign. 

Key Man: Kyriakos Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos is going to be vital to Greece at this tournament. He is already a proven big game performer despite being only 20 years of age and with Greece focusing, again, on defensive solidity the Schalke 04 man’s importance will be paramount. A fantastically commanding young center back Papadopoulos should be the rock at the heart of the Greek defense for years to come. It gets better though. He’s actually a very good footballer, a silky passer who can play in midfield and would also look at home in an attractive passing side should the Greek’s ever fancy a change.  

Watch Out For: Ioannis Fetfatzidis

“Fetfa” is likely to be used only as an impact sub by Santos but he does offer something different and a bit of excitement. The 21 year old is speedy and skillful and will feature in one of the wide forward roles on either side of Fanis Gekas. There is a great deal of excitement about the 5ft 6ins tall Olympiakos man and a combination of his technical ability and the fact that his club paid for growth hormone treatment has earned him the tag of the “The Greek Messi”.

1000 Goals Predicts:

Greece will be tremendously hard to break down and it may well take a better team than the ones in group A to do it. A repeat of the 2004 success though, seems very unlikely as even with their set-pieces Greece simply don’t possess enough goal threat. Escaping the group and earning the opportunity to scalp a big team would be viewed as a huge success and provide a massive lift to a Greek public with a dreary financial cloud hanging over them. This team however, are more likely to draw a couple of games in the group and go out.

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Euro 2012 Greece