Greek national football team

This article is about the Greek men's national football team. For the women's team, see Greek national soccer team for women , for the U-20 team, see Greek national soccer team (U-20 men) .

Greece
Ελλάς / Ellás

Nickname (s)	Το Πειρατικό ( To Piratiko , The Pirate Ship) Phalanx Galanolefki ( Blue and White ) Ethniki ( National Team )
Association	Elliniki Podosferiki Omospondia
confederacy	UEFA
Technical sponsor	Nike
Head coach	John van 't Schip (since 2019)
Assistant coach	Thomas Stratos
captain	Vasilios Torosidis
Record scorer	Nikolaos Anastopoulos (29)
Record player	Giorgos Karagounis (139)
Home stadium	Karaiskakis Stadium
FIFA code	GRE
FIFA rank	54th (1409 points) (as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey Second jersey
Balance sheet
571 games 213 wins 137 draws 221 defeats
statistics
First international match Greece 0-9 Sweden ( Antwerp , Belgium ; August 28, 1920 )
Biggest win Greece 8-0 Syria ( Athens , Greece ; November 25, 1949 )
Biggest defeat Hungary 11: 1 Greece ( Budapest , Hungary ; March 25, 1938 )
Successes in tournaments
World Championship
Participation in the finals	3 ( first : 1994 )
Best results	Round of 16 2014
European Championship
Participation in the finals	4 ( first : 1980 )
Best results	European champion 2004
(As of November 18, 2019)

The Greek national team represents the Greek Football Association at international tournaments. Most recently, could national team for both the Euro 2008 and 2012 and the 2010 and 2014 took place World Championships qualify. In 2008 she was eliminated in the preliminary round and in 2012 she was able to prevail in the final group game against the favorites Russia in a final with 1-0. Russia was eliminated from the tournament due to this defeat. Her greatest success is the title at the 2004 European Championship under German coach Otto Rehhagel , who coached the team from 2001 to 2010.

history

The Greek football association is called "Elliniki Podosfairiki Omospondia" and was founded in 1926. Although football has a long tradition in Greece , international success has been sparse.

The first international match recognized by FIFA took place at the Olympic Games in Antwerp before the association was founded and was lost 9-0 to Sweden on August 28, 1920 . At the interludes in Athens in 1906 , a team from Athens took part, which took 4th place, and a team from Thessaloniki , which at that time still belonged to the Ottoman Empire and only came to Greece in 1913. The games are not included in the FIFA statistics. The first game since the association was founded and also recognized by FIFA took place on June 30, 1929 in Sofia against Bulgaria and ended 1-1. Previously there had already been an international match on April 7, 1929 against Italy in the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium in Athens. In front of 15,000 spectators, Apostolos Nikolaidis' team lost 4-1 to the Italian B team, the only Greek goalscorer in this game was the striker Alvertos Namias . The first win came in the international match on January 26, 1930 against Yugoslavia (2-1).

In the period that followed, the Greek national team had no major successes worth mentioning and it was not until 1980 that the team could qualify for a major tournament. In that year the team qualified for the 1980 European Football Championship in Italy, in qualification group 6 the Greeks prevailed against Hungary and the Soviet Union. The group draw showed that Greece had to compete against the defending champion ČSSR , Vice European Champion Germany and Vice World Champion Netherlands .

In the first game of the European Championship in 1980, the Netherlands lost 1-0, with Kees Kist's goal only from a penalty. Another defeat followed three days later when the Greeks lost 3-1 to Czechoslovakia. Nikos Anastopoulos had made it 1: 1 in the meantime. In the last group game, they managed a 0-0 win against the eventual European champions, who, however, had already qualified for the final and therefore did not use some regular players.

14 years later, Greece qualified for a World Cup finals for the first time, the 1994 World Cup in the USA, but the Hellenes lost all their games and finished last in their group with 0 points and 0:10 goals.

After the unexpected qualification for the 2004 European Championship , the Greek team caused one of the biggest surprises in football history: They won the title with their coach Otto Rehhagel, who has been with Greece since 2001, with a 1-0 final victory over hosts Portugal . In English betting shops, Greece had been traded as a 100: 1 underdog before the start of the tournament.

The Greek Football Association (HFF) was suspended by the FIFA Emergency Committee on July 3, 2006, as the situation of the HFF did not comply with the principles of the FIFA Statutes regarding the autonomy of member associations and independent decision-making processes of the football authorities in each country. After the Greek parliament passed an amendment to the national sports law, the ban was lifted on July 12, 2006.

After failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, the Greeks competed as defending champions at the 2008 European Championship , but were eliminated in the preliminary round after three defeats, including against eventual European champions Spain.

Otto Rehhagel in 2014 - 10 years after winning the European Championship

In November 2009 Greece managed to qualify for a World Cup for the second time. After a 0-0 play-off first leg, the team in Donetsk won a 0-1 away win against Ukraine. On June 17, 2010, Dimitrios Salpingidis scored the first ever Greek World Cup goal in the 44th minute of the second group match between the Greeks at the 2010 World Cup against Nigeria . The goal also led to the first victory in a World Cup game. Furthermore, Argentina and South Korea were opponents in group B at the World Cup.

Rehhagel resigned from his coaching post after the 2010 World Cup, and was succeeded by the Portuguese Fernando Santos .

In Group F for the 2012 European Championship qualification , the team met Croatia , Israel , Georgia , Latvia and Malta and qualified as group winners on the last day of the match.

Participation in the finals of the European Football Championship

→ Main article : Greek national football team / European championships

Angelos Charisteas ( far left) headed the winning goal against Portugal in the 2004 European Championship final (final score 0: 1). The striker is the most successful Greek goalscorer after Nikolaos Anastopoulos .

Angelos Basinas , Greek team captain at the 2004 European Championships and player with the fifth most international appearances.

Greece took part in the final round of the European Championship four times, once with eight participants and three times with 16 participants.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Comments and special features
1960	France	not qualified		| In the second round later in the Fourth France failed.
1964	Spain	not participated
1968	Italy	not qualified			In qualifying later in the Fourth USSR failed.
1972	Belgium	not qualified			In the qualification of England failed, could not qualify for the final round.
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified			In qualifying on defending champion and later vice-European champion Germany failed.
1980	Italy	Preliminary round	Germany , Netherlands , Czechoslovakia	-	After defeats against the Netherlands and the defending champions, as well as a draw against eventual European champions Germany, they were eliminated as bottom group
1984	France	not qualified			In the qualification of Denmark failed.
1988	BR Germany	not qualified			In qualifying at the eventual winners the Netherlands failed.
1992	Sweden	not qualified			In qualifying on defending champions the Netherlands failed.
1996	England	not qualified			In the qualification of Russia and Scotland failed.
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified			In the qualification of Norway and Slovenia failed.
2004	Portugal	final	Portugal	European champion	First title for Greece
2008	Austria and Switzerland	Preliminary round	Russia , Sweden , Spain	-	Eliminated after three defeats as bottom of the group
2012	Poland and Ukraine	Quarter finals	Germany	2: 4	In the preliminary round , the Greeks met co-hosts Poland , then the Czech Republic and Russia in the opening game and were able to qualify for the quarter-finals
2016	France	not qualified			In the qualification of Hungary , Romania and Northern Ireland failed.
2021	Europe	not qualified			In the qualification of Italy and Finland failed.

Participation in the finals of the soccer world championship

→ Main article : Greek national football team / World Cups

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated
1934	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification of Italy failed (venue sold)
1938	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Hungary failed
1950	Brazil	not participated
1954	Switzerland	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Yugoslavia
1958	Sweden	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Yugoslavia
1962	Chile	not qualified				In the qualification of Germany failed
1966	England	not qualified				In the qualification of the USSR failed
1970	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualification of Romania failed
1974	Germany	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Yugoslavia
1978	Argentina	not qualified				In the qualification of Hungary failed
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification of Yugoslavia and Italy failed
1986	Mexico	not qualified				In the qualification to Poland and Belgium failed
1990	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification of Romania failed
1994	United States	Preliminary round	Argentina , Bulgaria , Nigeria	24.	Alketas Panagoulias	Eliminated with 0:10 goals as bottom group
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Denmark and Croatia failed
2002	South Korea / Japan	not qualified				In the qualification of England and Germany failed
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of the Ukraine and Turkey failed, Turkey then failed in the play-offs.
2010	South Africa	Preliminary round	South Korea , Argentina , Nigeria	25th	Otto Rehhagel	Otto Rehhagel oldest coach at a World Cup
2014	Brazil	Round of 16	Costa Rica	13.	Fernando Santos	Greece was able to prevail in the play-offs against Romania . Greece met Ivory Coast , Japan and Colombia for the first time in the group stage . With 4 points, Greece reached the round of the best 16 for the first time. There the team met Costa Rica and lost 6: 4 including penalties.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In the qualification to Belgium in the group stage and then in the repechage to Croatia failed.

Participation in the Summer Olympics for senior national teams

1908 in London	did not participate, the association was only founded in 1926
1912 in Stockholm	did not participate, the association was only founded in 1926
1920 in Antwerp	Preliminary round
1924 in Paris	not participated
1928 in Amsterdam	not participated
1936 in Berlin	not participated
1948 in London	not participated

Participation in the Confederations Cup

Greece has taken part once so far, in 2005 as European champions in the FIFA Confederations Cup , which has been held since 1997 , but failed in the preliminary round to Central and North American champions Mexico , who scored the only point at 0-0, as well as world champions Brazil and Asian champions Japan .

title

European Football Championship

2004

Coach chronicle

01. Ioannis Kalafatis , 1920 2. Apostolos Nikolaidis , 1929 3. Jan Kopsiva , 1929–1930 4. Svejik, 1930 5. Jan Kopsiva, 1930 6. Lefteris Panourgias , 1932 7. Kostas Negrepontis , 1933–1934 8. Apostolos Nikolaidis, 1934–1935 9. Kostas Konstantaras , 1935 10. József Künzstler , 1936 11. Kostas Konstantaras, 1936 12. Kostas Negrepontis, 1938 13. Alan Bucket , 1938 14. Kostas Negrepontis, 1948–1950 15. Antonis Migiakis , 1951 16. Ioannis Chelmis , 1951 17. Nikos Katrantzos , 1951 18. K. Negrepontis and A. Migiagis, 1952 19. Antonis Migiakis, 1952–1953 20. Kostas Negrepontis, 1953 21. Ioannis Chelmis, 1954 22. Antonis Migiakis, 1954–1955 23. Ioannis Chelmis, 1955 24. Kostas Andritsos, 1956 25. Rino Martini , 1957–1958 26. Antonis Migiakis, 1958 27. Paul Baron , 1959–1960 28. Tryfonas Tzanetis , 1960–1961 29. Antonis Migiakis, 1961 30. Tryfonas Tzanetis , 1962-1964 31. Lakis Petropoulos and Ioannis Magiras, 1964-1965 32. Panos Markovits , 1966-1967 33. Lakis Petropoulos, 1967 34. Kostas Karapat is , 1968 35. Dan Georgiadis , 1968–1969 36. Lakis Petropoulos, 1969–1971 37. Billy Bingham , 1971–1973 38. / Alketas Panagoulias , 1973–1976 39. Lakis Petropoulos, 1976–1977 40. Alketas Panagoulias, 1977 1981 41. Christos Archontidis , 1982-1984 42. Miltos Papapostolou , 1984-1988 43. Alekos Sofianidis , 1988-1989 44. Antonis Georgiadis , 1989-1991 45. Stefanos Petritsis , 1992 46. Antonis Georgiadis, 1992 47. Alketas Panagoulias , 1992–1994 48. Kostas Polychroniou , 1994–1998 49. Anghel Iordănescu , 1998–1999 50. Vassilis Daniil , 1999–2001 51. Nikos Christidis , 2001 52. Otto Rehhagel , 2001–2010 53. Fernando Santos , 2010–2014 54. Claudio Ranieri , 2014 55. Sergio Markarián , 2015 56. Michael Skibbe , 2015–2018 57. Angelos Anastasiadis , 2018–2019 58. John van 't Schip , 2019–
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Record player

(As of November 18, 2019)

Record player
Games	player	Period	Gates
139	Giorgos Karagounis	1999-2014	10
120	Theodoros Zagorakis	1994-2007	3
116	Kostas Katsouranis	2003-2015	10
101	Vasilios Torosidis	2007–	10
100	Angelos Basinas	1999-2009	7th
96	Efstratios Apostolakis	1986-1998	5
90	Antonios Nikopolidis	1996-2008	0
90	Socratis	2008–	3
88	Angelos Charisteas	2001-2011	25th
82	Dimitrios Salpingidis	2005-2014	13
81	Giorgos Samaras	2006-2014	9

Record shooters
Gates	player	Period	Games
29	Nikolaos Anastopoulos	1977-1988	75
25th	Angelos Charisteas	2001-2011	88
24	Theofanis Gekas	2005-2014	78
22nd	Dimitrios Saravakos	1982-1994	78
21st	Mimis Papaioannou	1963-1978	61
18th	Nikolaos Machlas	1993-2002	60
17th	Konstantinos Mitroglou	2009–	65
17th	Demis Nikolaidis	1995-2004	54
16	Panagiotis Tsalouchidis	1987-1985	75
14th	Giorgos Sideris	1958-1970	28

Previous internationals

Greek starting line-up for the friendly against Austria in August 2013

→ Main article : List of international matches for the Greek national football team

See also

• Greek National Football Team (U-17 Juniors)
• Greek national football team (U-20 men)
• Greek national football team (U-21 men)

Web links

Commons : Greek National Soccer Team  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Greek Football Association (Greek and English)
• Rec. Sport. Soccer Statistics Foundation: Greece - International Matches - Overview

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 . 
2. ↑ FIFA.com: Olympic Football Tournament Antwerp 1920 Match Report Sweden - Greece ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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. ↑ FIFA press release suspension
4. ↑ FIFA press release lifting of the ban
5. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930–2010 (PDF; 200 kB)
6. ↑ ^{a b} rsssf.com: Greece - Record International Players