Football World Cup 2014 / Greece

This article covers the Greek national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Greece took part in the final tournament for the third time and for the first time in a final tournament in South America . Greece reached the round of 16 for the first time, but were eliminated there on penalties against Costa Rica, which thus reached the quarter-finals for the first time.

qualification

Greece played in European qualifying Group G . Opponents were Bosnia and Herzegovina , Slovakia , Lithuania , Latvia and Liechtenstein . Greece played all home games at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus . The Greek team was characterized by a stable defense and, together with Belgium, conceded the fewest goals against of all European teams that played 10 group games. Scoring goals, on the other hand, was difficult even against “football dwarf” Liechtenstein. Greece was therefore in a head-to-head race with Bosnia and Herzegovina and was second in the group with eight wins (including five 1-0 victories), one draw and one defeat due to the worse goal difference and qualified second in the group - with the fewest goals scored - for the playoff games of the group runners-up against Romania. In the first playoff game the Greeks then scored more goals than in one of the group games before and with a 3-1 and a 1-1 draw in the second leg they qualified for the finals in Brazil.

Group stage

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	8th	1	1	030: 600	+24	25th
2.	Greece	10	8th	1	1	012: 400	+8	25th
3.	Slovakia	10	3	4th	3	011:100	+1	13
4th	Lithuania	10	3	2	5	009:110	−2	11
5.	Latvia	10	2	2	6th	010:200	−10	08th
6th	Liechtenstein	10	0	2	8th	004:250	−21	02

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Greece
07.09.2012	Riga ( LVA )	Latvia	-	Greece	1: 2 (1: 0)	Spyropoulos (57th), Gekas (69th)
09/11/2012	Piraeus	Greece	-	Lithuania	2: 0 (0: 0)	Sotirios Ninis (55th), Mitroglou (72nd)
October 12, 2012	Piraeus	Greece	-	Bosnia-Herzeg.	0-0
10/16/2012	Bratislava ( SVK )	Slovakia	-	Greece	0: 1 (0: 0)	Salpingidis (63.)
03/22/2013	Zenica ( BIH )	Bosnia-Herzeg.	-	Greece	3: 1 (2: 0)	Gekas (90th + 3)
06/07/2013	Vilnius ( LTU )	Lithuania	-	Greece	0: 1 (0: 1)	Christodoulopoulos (20.)
06.09.2013	Vaduz ( LIE )	Liechtenstein	-	Greece	0: 1 (0: 0)	Mitroglou (72nd)
09/10/2013	Piraeus	Greece	-	Latvia	1: 0 (1: 0)	Salpingidis (58.)
10/11/2013	Piraeus	Greece	-	Slovakia	1: 0 (1: 0)	Škrtel (44./ ET)
October 15, 2013	Piraeus	Greece	-	Liechtenstein	2: 0 (1: 0)	Salpingidis (7th), Karagounis (81st)

Playoff games

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Greece
10/11/2013	Piraeus	Greece	-	Romania	3: 1 (2: 1)	Mitroglou (14th, 67th), Salpingidis (21st)
10/11/2013	Bucharest ( ROU )	Greece	-	Romania	1: 1 (0: 1)	Mitroglou (23.)

Fernando Santos used a total of 31 players in the 12 games. Only goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis , who was not in the squad at the 2012 European Championship finals, took part in all the games. The top scorer was Konstantinos Mitroglou with five goals. Six other players contributed the rest, plus an own goal. With Andreas Samaris and Charis Mavrias , two players also made their first appearance in the senior national team in the qualifying games. On October 16, 2012 Konstantinos Katsouranis made his 100th international match in the qualifying game against Slovakia as the fourth Greek .

preparation

Test matches:

• 0March 5 in Piraeus against South Korea (0-2)
• May 31 in Lisbon against Portugal (0-0)
• 0June 3 in Chester against Nigeria (0-0)
• 0June 6 in Harrison against Bolivia (2-1, goalscorers for Greece: Kone / 21st and Katsouranis / 54th)

Squad

On May 19, 2014, the preliminary roster with 30 players was named, but it was reduced to 23 players. 10 players, including the only ever World Cup goalscorers, took part in the 2010 finals in South Africa.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	birthday	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
12	Panagiotis Glycos	PAOK Thessaloniki M	002	00	October 10, 1986	1	0	0	0	0
13	Stefanos Kapino	Panathinaikos Athens P	002	00	March 18, 1994	0	0	0	0	0
01	Orestis Karnezis	Granada CF.	019th	00	July 11, 1985	4th	0	0	0	0
Defender
20th	José Holebas	Olympiacos Piraeus M	022nd	01	June 27, 1984	4th	0	0	0	0
04th	Kostas Manolas	Olympiacos Piraeus M	009	00	June 14, 1991	4th	0	1	0	0
05	Evangelos Moras	Hellas Verona	019th	00	August 26, 1981	0	0	0	0	0	2010	1	0
19th	Socratis	Borussia Dortmund	047	01	June 9, 1988	4th	1	0	0	0	2010	2	0
15th	Vasilios Torosidis	AS Roma	066	07th	June 10, 1985	4th	0	1	0	0	2010	3	1
03	Giorgos Tzavelas	PAOK Thessaloniki	013	00	November 26, 1987	0	0	0	0	0
11	Loukas Vyntra	Levant UD	050	00	5th February 1981	0	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
midfield player
16	Lazaros Christodoulopoulos	FC Bologna A	019th	01	December 19, 1986	2	0	0	0	0
10	Giorgos Karagounis	Fulham FC A	135	10	March 6, 1977	4th	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
21st	Kostas Katsouranis	PAOK Thessaloniki	111	10	June 21, 1979	3	0	1	1	0	2010	3	0
08th	Panagiotis Kone	FC Bologna A	016	01	July 26, 1987	3	0	0	0	0
02	Ioannis Maniatis	Olympiacos Piraeus M	030th	00	October 12, 1986	4th	0	0	0	0
22nd	Andreas Samaris	Olympiacos Piraeus M	004th	00	June 13, 1989	2	1	1	0	0
23	Panagiotis Tachtsidis	Torino FC	006th	00	February 15, 1991	0	0	0	0	0
06th	Alexandros Tziolis	Kayserispor A	049	01	February 13, 1985	0	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
striker
18th	Ioannis Fetfatzidis	CFC genoa	019th	03	December 21, 1990	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Theofanis Gekas	Torku Konyaspor	072	24	May 23, 1980	4th	0	0	0	0	2010	2	0
09	Konstantinos Mitroglou	Fulham FC A	032	08th	March 12, 1988	3	0	0	0	0
14th	Dimitrios Salpingidis	PAOK Thessaloniki	076	13	18th August 1981	4th	0	1	0	0	2010	2	1
07th	Giorgos Samaras	Celtic Glasgow M	074	08th	February 21, 1985	4th	1	1	0	0	2010	3	0
Coaching staff
	Fernando Santos	Trainer			October 10, 1954	4th				1
	Leonidas Vokolos	Assistant coach	7th	1	August 31, 1970
		Goalkeeping coach
		Fitness trainer

(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given, updated after the games against Portugal on May 31, 2014, Nigeria on June 4, 2014 and Bolivia on June 7, 2014

1. ↑ Players without a number were only part of the preliminary roster.
2. ↑ M = The club became champions of its country in the 2013/14 season, A = The club was relegated from the highest league in the country, P = The club won the cup in the 2013/14 season.
3. ↑ ^{a b} As a player

Finals

Group stage

Belo Horizonte Fortaleza natal Aracaju Recife

Preliminary round venues (red), round of 16 venue (green) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Greece was drawn into the seemingly easy group C with Colombia (group head), Ivory Coast and Japan. There was only one friendly match against Colombia on June 5, 1994 in preparation for the 1994 World Cup, which ended 2-0. There was only one group match against Japan at the 2005 Confederations Cup . Greece had never played against Ivory Coast until the World Cup. Greece had only played once in South America: on April 28, 1974 in Rio de Janeiro against Brazil - at the same time the first game against a reigning world champion - and kept it 0-0.

The crew quarters were the Radisson Aracaju in Aracaju .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Colombia	9: 2	9
2	Greece	2: 4	4th
3	Ivory Coast	4: 5	3
4th	Japan	2: 6	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Belo Horizonte Colombia - Greece 3: 0 (1: 0)
  
• Thursday, June 19, 2014, 7:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. CEST) in Natal Japan - Greece 0: 0
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Fortaleza Greece - Ivory Coast 2: 1 (1: 0)
  

Greece are the first team to reach the round of 16 in second place with a goal difference of −2. The decisive factor was a penalty that was converted into injury time in the game against Ivory Coast.

Knockout round

• Round of 16: Sun. June 29, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Recife Costa Rica - Greece 1: 1 a.s. (1: 1, 0: 0), 5: 3 i. E.
  

Coach Fernando Santos was sent to the stands by the referee before the penalty shoot-out. As a result, he received a fine and was suspended for eight games that had to be served in the next official games of the team for which he would work in the future.

Sports impact

In the FIFA world rankings , Greece fell by one place to 13th despite having reached the round of 16 for the first time.

Resignations

• Coach Fernando Santos retired after the World Cup as announced before the World Cup. Successor was Claudio Ranieri .
• After elimination in the round of 16, team captain Giorgos Karagounis resigned from the national team and ended his international career.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fifa.com: "Portugal in preparation for the World Cup against Greece"
2. ↑ fifa.com: "Greece with Sokratis and Gekas to the World Cup" ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Release List of Players ( English , PDF) FIFA. May 16, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
4. ↑ Portugal - Greece 0-0 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
5. ↑ Greece - Nigeria 0-0 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
6. ↑ Greece - Bolivia 2: 1 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
7. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
8. ↑ fifa.com: "Decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on World Cup cases"
9. ↑ WM compact Karagounis ends

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All qualifying matches of Greece