No gifts on offer as Ireland face tough trip to Greece

In recent decades Ireland have frequently given the impression that playing international football is all Greek to them.

Perhaps, appropriately, this feeling has always been particularly strong when they faced Greece who have won two and drawn one of the three friendly encounters against Ireland, who have failed to score a single goal.

Ireland’s only previous odyssey to Greece in November 2002 proved to be a far from epic affair, with caretaker manager Don Givens overseeing a 0-0 draw which attracted a paltry 4,000 spectators despite the €1 ticket price.

The only player to show any real enthusiasm for the fixture was Glen Crowe, who made his Irish debut in Athens before immediately travelling on to Derry where the following evening he scored in a 3-0 victory at the Brandywell for a Bohemians side managed by Stephen Kenny.

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Even age-group football provides little comfort with the most recent meeting coming at under-19 level in March when Greece beat Ireland 1-0 in a European qualifier at Ferrycarrig Park.

Irish and Greek sides have regularly faced each other in European club competition. Once again the Greek sides have enjoyed the upper hand, most recently in the 2021 Europa Conference League when PAOK eliminated Bohemians 3-2 on aggregate despite the League of Ireland side winning the first leg 2-1 at the Aviva Stadium.

In 2011 when Shamrock Rovers became the first Irish team to contest the group stage of European competition, they lost twice to PAOK with the Greek side topping a group that also contained Spurs and Rubin Kazan.

The first competitive meeting between Ireland and Greece takes place at the new 32,500-seater OPAP Arena, which will host the Europa Conference League Final in 2024. The stadium is the home of AEK Athens who have just completed their first domestic league and cup double since 1978.

Regardless of venue Greece enjoy a very impressive home record, with a 1-0 defeat to Spain in November 2021 being their only loss in their last 16 outings.

Former Chelsea and Spurs legend Gus Poyet took charge of Greece in February 2022 having previously managed both Brighton and Sunderland where his captain was Ireland assistant coach John O’Shea. Poyet made an immediate impact, with Greece topping their Nations League group to earn promotion to League B and guarantee a playoff for Euro 2024 regardless of their performance in regular qualifying.

One of their vanquished Nations League opponents were Northern Ireland, who Greece beat 1-0 at Windsor Park and 3-1 in Athens after which Ian Baraclough was sacked. One of Poyet’s assistants is his son, Diego, who in 2015 played in the Europa League for West Ham alongside Josh Cullen before retiring at just 23.

Poyet is one of a handful of foreign nationals to manage Greece, a list that includes Billy Bingham, who took charge from 1971-73. But it was another foreign manager who in 2004 inspired the greatest moment in Greek sporting history, when they were crowned European Champions despite having never previously won a single game at a major tournament.

The dark ages for Greek football ended at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon where Greece beat hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final, having already defeated them in the tournament’s opening match. The victorious Greek team did not contain a single star, reflected in the fact that Theo Zagorakis of Leicester City was named player of the tournament.

Manager Otto Rehhagel became so popular that he was named Greek person of the year despite actually being German and when the inevitable documentary was made it was simply called ‘King Otto’.

A handful of Irish have played in Greece, most notably Liam Lawrence who spent two seasons at PAOK. Ronnie Whelan was manager of Panionios when they reached the quarter-final of the Cup Winners Cup in 1999 where they were beaten 7-0 on aggregate by eventual winners Lazio.

Although Panathinaikos play in green and white and have a shamrock as an emblem on their shirts, their strongest actual connection to Ireland is the two years that Paddy Mulligan spent there as a coach from 1980-82.

In 1971 manager Ferenc Puskás led Panathinaikos to the European Cup final at Wembley Stadium where they lost 2-0 to Ajax. Over half a century on this remains the only time a Greek club has reached a European final, although Panathinaikos did reach the semi-final of the Champions League in 1996 where they were beaten again by Ajax.

The current Greek squad is short of household names other than Liverpool defender Konstantinos Tsimikas. The most intriguing new addition is George Baldock who recently made his international debut aged almost 30 thanks to a Greek grandmother.

Baldock has recently been promoted into the Premier League with Sheffield United where he plays alongside John Egan. However, the Greece’s best players are probably German-born goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos (Benfica), attacking midfielder Anastasios Bakasetas (Trabzonspor) and defender Konstantinos Mavropanos (Stuttgart) who had a brief spell at Arsenal under Arsène Wenger.

Remarkably, despite being the joint top scorer in the Eredivisie, Utrecht striker Anastasios Douvikas was only a late call-up after initially being left out of the squad by Poyet.

Off the field, Greek influence on the Premier League has recently increased. New Spurs manager Angelos Postecoglou was born in Athens before moving to Australia when he was five. Postecoglou’s playing and managerial career both began at South Melbourne Hellas, a club formed in 1949 by Greek migrants.

However, perhaps the most powerful Greek person in English football is Evangelos Marinakis who owns both Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest.

Historically Olympiacos are the most successful club in Greece, who in 1988 paid a then world record £6 million fee to buy Hungarian midfielder Lajos Détári from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Players of such exalted status have not played at Olympiacos for decades but they will be back for one night only in August when their stadium hosts the European Super Cup Final between Manchester City and Sevilla.