Every reason for Ireland to be braced for tough Greek test

In recent decades Ireland have frequently given the impression that playing international football is all Greek to them.
Appropriately, this feeling is strongest when they face Greece, who have won four and drawn one of their five matches against Ireland, with the Republic only scoring a single goal. Last year Greece completed a double over Ireland, winning 2-1 in Athens and 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium to secure a play-off spot for Euro 2024.
The chasm between the countries is even more pronounced at club level, as illustrated in August when PAOK eased past Shamrock Rovers on a 6-0 aggregate scoreline to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League. Things were much closer in 2021 Europa Conference League when Bohemians were unlucky to fall to PAOK on a 3-2 aggregate scoreline.
Making a quick return to Dublin is former Hull City midfielder Dimitrios Pelkas, who last month played for Istanbul Başakşehir in their 0-0 draw with St Patrick’s Athletic in a Europa Conference qualifier at Tallaght Stadium.
Formed in 1925, Olympiacos are by far the most successful Greek side, winning the Super League 22 times in the last 28 years and collecting their first continental title in May this year when they beat Fiorentina 1-0 in the Uefa Conference League final to become the first Greek club to win a European club competition.
The victory was made all the sweeter by the fact the final was played at the Agia Sophia Stadium, home of local rivals AEK Athens, thus enabling Olympiacos to become the first club to win a European trophy in their own city since Feyenoord won the 2002 Europa League Final at their home ground in Rotterdam.
Before that, the only Greek side to play in a European final were the Panathinaikos team, managed by Ferenc Puskás, who lost the 1971 European Cup Final 2-0 to Johan Cruyff’s Ajax at Wembley Stadium.
The greatest moment in Greek soccer history came at international rather than club level, when in 2004 they won the European Championships despite having never previously won a single game at a major tournament.
The dark ages for Greek football ended at the Stadium of Light where Greece beat hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final, having also defeated them in the tournament’s opening match. The victorious Greeks really were a team without stars with Theo Zagorakis of Leicester City being named Player of the Tournament.
The popularity of manager Otto Rehhagel was so great that he was named Greek Person of the Year despite being German and a BBC documentary made earlier this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the triumph was called: King Otto and Football’s Greek Gods.
Hoping to match these achievements is new manager Ivan Jovanović who spent the bulk of his playing and coaching career in Greece. The Serbian’s greatest success came in Cyprus where he steered Apoel to the quarter-finals of the 2012 Champions League before being eliminated by Real Madrid.
A number of the Greek squad play in the Premier League including goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos (Newcastle) and defenders Konstantinos Tsimikas (Liverpool) and Konstantinos Mavropanos (West Ham).
However the emerging leader of the Greek back line is outstanding 20-year-old Konstantinos Koulierakis whose club record €15 million move from PAOK to Wolfsburg was deferred until after their tie against Shamrock Rovers was successfully navigated last month.
Greece have an even greater wealth of talent up front. Evangelos Pavlídis recently joined Benfica for €20 million, but the in-form striker is Panathinaikos’s Fotis Ioannidis who scored twice in the 3-0 Nations League win over Finland on Saturday, illustrating why he has been linked with a €30 million move to Leicester City.
The Greek sauad includes the surprise selection of midfielder Christos Zafeiris, who played 47 age group internationals for Norway, including 16 at under-21 level.
Last November Zafeiris captained the Norway under-21 team to a 3-2 victory over Ireland in a vital European Championship qualifier before dramatically switching allegiance to Greece last month.
Greece haven’t qualified for a major tournament since they lost a penalty shoot-out to Costa Rica in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup. Gus Poyet came close to ending this drought, leading Greece to a Euro 2024 play-off only to again lose on penalties, this time to Georgia, who had never previously qualified for a major championship.
Encouragingly, Greece are one of the few countries with an even worse record than Ireland in the Nations League. This is the first time that Greece have played in League B, taking three attempts to escape the third tier before finally securing promotion in 2022, topping a group that included Northern Ireland.
In January the Ireland under-16 team beat their Greek counterparts 6-0 in an Aegean Cup fixture in Turkey.
The FAI can at least be assured that there will be no repeat of Saturday’s controversy over interim England boss Lee Carsley’s failure to sing for his supper with Greece boss Jovanović saying: “It makes sense to sing the national anthem”.
However Hymn to Liberty is a 158-stanza poem and is believed to give Greece the longest national anthem in the world. Luckily for Jovanović only the first couple of verses are actually played.