Squad Announced, Gekas and Charisteas Recalled

September 30th, 2011 | by: nick | Comments Off

Hello to all Greek fans. Fernando Santos has finally announced his squad for the upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers against Croatia and Georgia. The big news that came with the announcement is the return of Eintracht Frankfurt striker Theofanis Gekas and Panetolikos striker Angelos Charisteas. Both strikers have recently struggled to show any of their previous form. Additionally Fernando Santos has also called up APOEL goalkeeper Dionisis Chiotis while Ioannis Fetfatzidis has been ruled out to injury while on duty for Olympiacos.

There is not much to say about the squad other than most of the usual players have received call ups. Santos is probably concerned with the absence of Fetfatzidis since he injects a considerable amount of technique and creativity. With Ninis ruled out as well, this has left the squad with only Giorgos Karagounis and Giorgos Fotakis as the only creative attacking midfielders. The recall of Charisteas and Gekas may have been an emergency measure since Greece lack in form strikers. But if Gekas and Charisteas received call ups then Kostas Mitroglou, Antonis Petropoulos, or Nikos Liberopoulos may have deserved a place in the squad as well.

Squad
Goalkeepers
Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo)
Dionisis Chiotis (APOEL)

Defenders
Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos)
Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos)
Yiannis Zaradoukas (Olympiakos)
Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen)
Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke)
Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos)
Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos)

Midfielders
Costas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos)
Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos)
Alexandros Tziolis (Racing Santander)
Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK)
Panagiotis Kone (Bologna)
Grigoris Makos (AEK Athens)
Thanos Petsos (Kaiserslautern)

Forwards
Stephanos Athanasiadis (PAOK)
Angelos Charisteas (Panaitolikos)
Georgios Samaras (Celtic)
Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK)
Fanis Gekas (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Source: The Republic