PREPARATIONS BEGIN

The Greece National football team that will be taking part in the Euro 2012 has began their preparations by travelling to Austria as part of their pretournament preparations. Greece won the competition in 2004, but it is highly unlikely that this will be able to achieve the same this time around. They are not one of the favourites to win the competition, with bookmakers largely resorting to Spain and Germany for their favourites. Yet, Greece manager Fernando Santos has said that he is extremely confident of causing a major surprise at the tournament just as they did in 2004.

Fernando Santos recently named a 25 man squad for the Euro 2012, but two members of the squad will be missing the tournament due to injury. In addition to the pretournament camp, Greece will also be taking part in two friendlies against Slovenia and Armenia. Santos has said that he wants to utilise these two friendlies in order to get more in-depth knowledge about his team. Greece are in the group containing Poland, Russia, and Czech Republic. Hence, there is a real chance that they may qualify for the next round. Santos also criticised the Greek league for not completing the domestic competition in time, which has delayed their Euro 2012 preparations.

“I know my players very well. I know that they are very happy to be here and I’m sure that they will work hard to be ready for the opening game against Poland on June 8. We are late in starting our preparation for the Euros, but there is nothing we can do now. Our goal is to advance from the group stage and we will do everything to make sure this happens. We want this because Greek fans love and support this team,” said Santos.