Greece begins road to South Africa

Greece returns to action on Saturday, as the ‘Galanoleuki’ open up their World Cup Qualifying schedule with a trip to tiny Luxembourg. Last month’s ‘prova generale’ against Slovakia, showed Greece is in good shape after a poor run in June’s European Championships.

Last time the Greeks started a World Cup Qualifying campaign, they were on a high thanks to the first place finish at EURO 2004. Their first opponent was Albania, and the Greeks seemed blind sighted by their own success just months prior to the tilt with their Northern rivals. Surprising everyone, Albania pulled an upset as the Albanians were the first to defeat the European Champions after their Lisbon achievements.

Despite a dark history in the qualifying rounds for the world’s most well-known tournament, Greece is heavily favoured to overcome Luxembourg and furthermore, finish atop the group. You can be guaranteed that Otto Rehhagel’s men will recall the surprisingly slim win against Moldova as a reminder not to take Luxembourg as ‘easy’ opponents.

There is plenty of fog surrounding the Greek National Team, after several players fight to reach full fitness ahead of Saturday’s kickoff. Theofanis Gekas appears to be ready after completing a personal training session with ease, ahead of returning to full training with the team. Meanwhile, Traianos Dellas is not as fortunate after the Anorthosis Famagusta defender picked up an injury during those very same sessions. The former-AEK captain is optimistic he will return to full fitness, and resume his reign in Greece’s backline. ‘There isn’t any concern; I’ll be ready for the game on Saturday.’ Dellas said. ‘It is a match we are awaiting anxiously.’

Regardless of the question mark over Dellas, Ioannis Amanatidis will miss the match after the Eintracht Frankfurt player picked up an injury while playing for his club against Wolfsburg.

As for the rest of the squad, several young stars will look to maintain their spots within the National Team. Namely, Vassilis Pliatsikas who received a shock call-up earlier this week. The AEK prospect impressed in his club’s 2-1 derby win over Panathinaikos.

With Greece locking horns with Luxembourg, the rest of the group sees Moldova welcome Latvia, while EURO 2008 hosts, Switzerland, travels to Israel.

Greece (Otto Rehhagel): Vasilis Pliatsikas, Giourkas Seitaridis, Kostas Katsouranis, Giorgos Samaras, Angelos Charisteas, Fanis Gekas, Nikos Liberopoulos, Socrates Papastathopoulos, Traianos Dellas, Vasilis Torosidis, Christos Patsatzoglou, Avraam Papadopoulos, Sotiris Kyrgiakos, Angelos Basinas, Kostas Chalkias, Alexandros Tzorvas, Sotiris Ninis, Giorgos Karagounis, Loukas Vyntra, Dimitris Salpingidis, Nikos Spyropoulos, Alexandros Tziolis.