Greece

Greece

Greece enter Euro 2008 as the defending champions and having recently beat their Euro 2004 final opponents Portugal 2-1 in a friendly played in Germany.

The Greek team has continued their fairy tale rise up the FIFA world rankings having broken into the top 10 for the first time ever and are currently ranked 8^th. Only Spain rank above them in the group and Greece will rightly be considered favorites to proceed to the quarter finals although their coach Otto Rehhagel or ‘King Otto' as the Greek fans like to call him is quick to play down the favorites tag. 

As in Euro 2004 the Greek team will build on a strong defense with experienced defenders Dellas, Kyrgiakos, Seitaridis and Patsatzoglou providing cover for Nikopolidis in between the posts. The teams attacking options have been strengthened since 2004 with the introduction of a number of foreign based strikers including Amanatidis, Gekas, Mantzios and Samaras who ply their trade in Germany and Scotland.

Although quick to play down the favorites tag, Greece will be looking to defend their European Crown with style and a strong run into the knock out stages will be the least the Greek public will demand from their heroes. Β 

Greek National Team from:

Goalkeepers

Konstantinos Chalkias

Antonios NikopolidisΒ 

Defenders

Georgios Anatolakis

Paraskevas Antzas

Traianos Dellas

Panagiotis Fyssas

Ioannis Goumas

Michalis Kapsis

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Christos Patsatzoglou

Giourkas Seitaridis

Nikos Spiropoulos

Vassilis Torosidis

Loukas VintraΒ 

Midfielders

Angelos Basinas

Stelios Giannakopoulos

Pantelis Kafes

Georgios Karagounis

Konstantinos Katsouranis

Panagiotis Lagos

Alexandros Tziolis

Theodoros ZagorakisΒ 

Forwards

Ioannis Amanatidis

Angelos Charisteas

Theofanis Gekas

Nikolaos Liberopoulos

Evangelos Mantzios

Dimitrios Papadopoulos

Dimitrios Salpingidis

Georgios SamarasΒ