Greece – World Cup Preview

It’s been six years since Greece lifted the European Cup and the light of that achievement has not entirely deserted them. They should have had a straightforward qualification process but lost twice to Switzerland who finished a point above them to win the group.

Greece then had a fraught play-off tie with Ukraine which was settled by a single goal in Donetsk. Having only made it to the finals once before in 1994 Greece will be looking improve on that performance where they did not win a single game and failed to score in any fixture.

Things look more promising this time however, the Greeks scored a promising number of goals in qualifying as Theofanis Gekas hit form, the striker now has 20 goals in 47 matches. Even when beaten Greece conceded it was a maximum of only 2 goals (against Switzerland).

Having a strong defence is always a good base to build upon. Liverpool’s Sotirios Kyrgiakos is a huge central defender who can probably get in the way of most things thrown at him, whilst at his back he has Panathinaikos’ Alexandros Tzorvas in goal, capped only 8 times but looking capable.

Defensively in midfield Kostas Katsouranis will serve to break up play and can keep the ball for his team. Alongside him Giorgos Karagounis provides the antithesis to this, striving forward, perhaps not at his Euro 2004 pace, but still expertly providing the creativity needed from the centre of the park.

Gekas will hope to match his qualification striking rate whilst Celtic’s Giorgos Samaras should hope to keep up with him. Coach Otto Rehhagel is said to prefer a defensive system but the Greeks will need to score goals if they want to lift their abysmal World Cup record. Angelos Charisteas will also be in contention as a goal threat and at 6 ft 3 in he should dominate headers in the area.