Olympian spirit

The Facts

Greece haven’t been to a European Championship since 1980. Their last appearance in the World Cup was 1994.

This year’s Olympic Games will be held in Athens and some of the Euro 2004 squad will be asked to help win the gold medal in August.

Greece had the worst record of any country at the 1994 World Cup. They were beaten by Bulgaria, Argentina and Nigeria without scoring a goal.

The current Greek squad is dotted around Europe including Karagounis (Inter), Nikolaidis (Atletico Madrid), Dellas (Roma) and Charisteas (Werder Bremen).

Theo Zagorakis won two League Cups with Leicester in 1997 and 2000.

The Opinion

Bolton midfielder Stylianos Giannakopoulos says Greek football has moved on a lot since their last appearance in a major championship, the 1994 World Cup.

"Eight of our possible starting line-up play abroad and that is a very good advantage for the team. We have a different mentality from the home-based players," he says.

"We have players from the Premiership, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga.

"Themistoklis Nikolaidis has been a big success at Atletico Madrid, Angelos Charisteas has done well at Werder Bremen. It all helps the national team."

Greece finished ahead of Spain in Euro 2004 qualifying but most people still expect the Spanish to qualify with Portugal from Group A.

"You can’t say that it’s automatically going to happen – nobody thought we would win our group. And what about Russia, they are not a small football country and could cause a surprise," says Stylianos.

"It is ten years since Greece were at a finals. I was in the army at the time and had to listen to matches on the radio. So there is a huge anticipation for Euro 2004.

"We know the whole planet is going to watch us in the opening game against Portugal."

Stylianos thinks one or two of the lesser-known Greek players might raise a few eyebrows in Portugal.

"Watch out for Giourkas Seitaridis," he warns.

"He is a right-back at Panathinaikos and a lot of clubs in Europe have been watching him including Inter, Milan and Valencia. Even Liverpool have been looking," he says.

Whatever happens in Portugal, Stylianos will enjoy this tournament more than the 1994 World Cup.

"I was doing my military service in Greece," he recalls. "We didn’t even have a television so we had to listen to matches on the radio."

This time, he will be hoping his only view isn’t the back of Luis Figo’s shirt!

The Colour

Socrates ‘invented’ democracy 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece.

Legendary Greek singer Demis Roussos was actually born in Egypt but went to Greece at 10-years-old when his family fled the Suez Crisis.

The Americans named their moon missions after Apollo, the Greek god of light.

 Dmitri Papadopoulos has turned his career around after being rejected by Burnley last summer.

He has just finished the Greek season as Panathinaikos’s leading scorer and helped them beat Olympiakos in the Greek Cup final.

More than three million tourists visit Athens each year with The Acropolis the number one place to see.

The Matches