Focus on Republic of Ireland’s opponents Greece and the threat they may pose

Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland go head-to-head with Greece in Athens on Friday evening in a fixture which could prove key to the Euro 2024 qualification hopes of both nations.

Ireland narrowly lost their opening Group B fixture to beaten World Cup finalists France in March three days after the Greeks cruised to a 3-0 win over minnows Gibraltar, and victory at the OPAP Arena could prove vital for either side.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at Greece and the threat they may pose.

Form

Greece headed into the campaign on a high after topping Nations League Group C2 with 15 points from a possible 18. They beat Northern Ireland and Kosovo home and away and Cyprus in Volos before the Cypriots gained revenge in Larnaca, and finished six points better off than the Kosovans in second place to secure a place in the Euro 2024 play-offs. They have won only one of the four games they have played since – their opening qualifier against Gibraltar – drawing friendlies with Malta and Lithuania either side of a 2-1 defeat in Hungary.

Manager

Gus Poyet was appointed as national team boss in February 2022 having earlier had a seven-month spell in charge at club side AEK Athens. The 55-year-old Uruguayan established himself as a household name during his playing days as a goalscoring midfielder, principally with River Plate, Real Zaragoza, Chelsea and Tottenham, before making the move into management with Brighton and Sunderland, who he guided to Premier League safety and the Capital One Cup final in 2014, AEK, Real Betis, Shanghai Shenhua, Bordeaux and Universidad Catolica in Chile.

Players

Poyet’s squad includes several familiar names with Liverpool defender Kostas Tsimikas and John Egan’s Sheffield United team-mate George Baldock – who qualifies for Greece through his grandmother – among its ranks. Free-scoring former Celtic striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, now at Atlanta United, is also at Poyet’s disposal, but it is perhaps Trabzonspor midfielder Tasos Bakasetas upon whom Ireland will need to keep a close eye. Six of Bakasetas’ 18 goals to date this season have come on the international stage, four of them in competitive games.

Pedigree

Greece are currently ranked 52nd by FIFA, three places below the Republic, but have appeared as high as eighth in the list. They famously won the Euros in 2004, when they shocked the continent’s super-powers under German Otto Rehhagel, and made it to the quarter-finals at Euro 2012. They have qualified for the World Cup finals on three occasions – 1994, 2010 and 2014 – and reached the last 16 in Brazil.