Greece look to Rebound

The defending champions will look for the form which saw them finish atop of Europe during the qualifying round, when they face off against Sweden in Salzburg on Tuesday. Recent Pre-EURO  2008  tests have not gone accordingly, as a 3-2 loss to Hungary in Budapest, and a scoreless draw with Armenia wrapped up the Greeks EURO 2008 preparation.

Greeks fans will hope it is just a little slump the team is in, and will be back to top form when the defending champions set out to defend their title on June 10.

The squad has been named, but a few players have skipped practice due to cases of injuries and fatigue. Greek play-maker Giorgos Karagounis was absent from practice, thanks to inflammation of his left knee; instead the midfielder worked out in the team’s hotel gym.  Aggelos Charisteas and Vassilis Torosidis  limited their training to a light jog, after complaining about groin problems. While Alexandros Tziolis and Christos Patsatzolglou, also suffering from groin problems, were rested. All absentees are expected to be back and ready for training by the end of the week.

Greece squad
Goalkeepers: Antonios Nikopolidis (Olympiacos CFP), Konstantinos Chalkias (PAOK FC), Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI Crete FC).

Defenders: Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt), Giourkas Seitaridis (Club Atlético de Madrid), Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens FC), Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos FC), Nikolaos Spiropoulos (Panathinaikos FC), Ioannis Goumas (Panathinaikos FC), Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiacos CFP), Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiacos CFP), Paraskevas Antzas (Olympiacos CFP).

Midfielders: Angelos Basinas (RCD Mallorca), Stelios Giannakopoulos (No Club), Georgios Karagounis (Panathinaikos FC), Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos FC), Konstantinos Katsouranis (SL Benfica).

Forwards: Dimitrios Salpingidis (Panathinaikos FC), Nikolaos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens FC), Theofanis Gekas (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Georgios Samaras (Celtic FC), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt), Angelos Charisteas (1. FC Nürnberg).