Greece national football team

Greece first took part in a major international tournament in 1980, when it became a participant in the final stage of the European Championship. Prior to this, Greek football only once clearly made itself known when the Panathinaikos club from Athens reached the final of the Champions Cup in 1971. But neither participation in the 1980 European Championship , nor a debut in the final stage of the World Cup in 1994, brought much success to the national team, as the team never managed to leave the groups.

Therefore, the victory in the very first match of the 2004 European Championship over the hosts of the tournament by the Portuguese (2: 1) was initially perceived as an accident. However, the Greeks managed to get out of the group, and then in the knockout stage they won two wins with a score of 1-0 (first, the current French champions were defeated, and then the Czech team in the semifinals, the goal was scored in the last seconds of the first overtime (silver goal). In the final, Greece again met with Portugal and won again, this time with a score of 1: 0. Many criticized the team’s purely defensive tactics, built by German coach Otto Rehagel . Such tactics seriously affected the entertainment of football, it was viscous and ugly. On the other hand, German pragmatism was very successfully inculcated in the southern footballers, who had previously not particularly favored discipline. This rafting gave the necessary result, elevating football players and a coach in Greece to the rank of national heroes (all the more so since the Olympic Games began in Athens just a month later).

After that, the Greek team was unable to break into the 2006 World Cup , taking only 4th place in the qualifying group. Many in Greece consider absenteeism at the 2006 World Cup the result of too long euphoria and, as a result, a defeat from the then weak Albania team in the 1st round 1: 2. ticket to Euro 2008 was obtained thanks to the victory in the qualifying group, and in the group stage of the upcoming tournament, two of the three rivals were in the same group as Greece in 2004 - Spain and Russia. Only in place of Portugal is Sweden the third rival in the group. In the last match of the group stage, Haristeas scored a beautiful prestige goal for future champions Spaniards.

In 2010, the Greeks played at the World Cup in South Africa , defeating Ukraine in butt games (0-0 at home, 1-0 at away). In the final part, the Greeks won for the first time - with a score of 2: 1 against the Nigeria national team, but this was not enough to leave the group. After the World Cup, Otto Rehagel resigned as head coach.

At the 2012 European Championships, the Greeks fell into a group with Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. In the first round, the wards of Fernando Santos tied with the Poles, and in the second they lost to the Czech Republic with a goal difference of one. In the third round of the group stage, the Greeks defeated the Russian team and reached the quarterfinals of the German team, which lost 2-4.

At the 2014 World Cup, the Greeks fell into group C with Colombia , Japan and Côte d'Ivoire . In the first match, the team was defeated by the Colombians with a score of 0: 3, then she played a goalless draw with the Japanese, playing ten most of the match and defeated Côte d'Ivoire in the decisive round. In the 1/8 finals, in the match against Costa Rica, having missed, the Greeks at the very end of the match were able to recoup. There were no goals in overtime, but in the penalty shootout the opponents of Greece were stronger.

In the selection for Euro 2016, Greece, led by Claudio Ranieri , was seeded in the first basket and fell into group F for the national teams of Romania, Northern Ireland, Finland, Hungary and the Faroe Islands. The defeat of the home from Romania (0: 1) and a draw on the road with Finland (1: 1) were followed by home defeats from Northern Ireland (0: 2) and the Faroe Islands (0: 1). The new coach Sergio Markarian did not correct the situation - a draw with Hungary on the road (0: 0) and a second defeat from Faroe (1: 2). And about. head coach Costas Zanas lost to Finland (0: 1 at home), tied Romania at home (0: 0), lost to Northern Ireland away (1: 3) and won at home against Hungary (4: 3). Thus, the Greeks took the last place in the group with 6 points.

The new head coach Michael Skibbe managed to lose in a friendly match to Luxembourg (0: 1) and draw with Turkey (0: 0).

At the qualifying tournament of the World Cup 2018, the Greek national team took the second place in the group, leaving Belgium ahead and went into the butt games, where they lost to the Croatian national team (1: 4 away and 0: 0 at home) and did not qualify for the world championship.

As of April 4, 2019, the national team ranked 43rd in the FIFA rating ^[2] , and 29th in the UEFA rating for October 11, 2017 ^[3] .

World Championship

European Championship

Friendship Cup

• 1971 - did not participate
• 1973-1991 - did not qualify
• 1993 - group stage
• 1995-2007 - did not qualify
• 2011 - 4th place
• 2015 - did not qualify
• 2017 - group stage

The following players were called up to the national team by head coach Angelos Anastasiadis to participate in the matches of the 2020 European Championship qualifier against the national team of Liechtenstein (March 23, 2019) and the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 26, 2019).

Games and goals as of March 26, 2019

The main color of the uniform of the Greek national team throughout history was blue, however, after winning the European Championships, the color of the home form changed from blue to white. The basic home uniform is a set of white T-shirts, underpants and leggings. The away form is blue t-shirts, underpants and leggings. Sometimes a combination of blue t-shirts and white underpants is used. The main company supplying the form is Nike : the multi-million dollar contract with it began to operate from the moment of the match on June 7, 2013 against Lithuania . In the past, team sponsors were Adidas (2003–2013) ^[4] , Lotto (1998–2001), Le Coq Sportif (2001–2003) ^[5] , Diadora (1992–1998), Puma (until 1990) and ASICS (Euro -1980).

As of October 25, 2018.

Most games for the national team ^[6]

Most goals for the national team ^[7]

• epo.gr - official website of the Greek national football team
• RSSSF - national team matches
• RSSSF - Highscores and Player Statistics
• RSSSF - national team coaches
• Greece squad 2013
• Statistics and protocols of all matches of the national team