Euro 2008 Review – Hellas Falter and Turkey Survives
Posted by evdomada on June 16, 2008
The Greeks are officially no longer the European Champions as their Euro 2008 defence campaign is all over. No one really thought that they were going to win it again but the loss to the Russians made it a formality.
Some will blame Nikopolidis for the loss but really his calamitous blunder made no difference to the real problem of the team.
Greece cannot score.
This tournament is threatening to be a repeat of Greece’s adventure at USA 94 because we came and left that tournament without scoring a single goal.
Seriously, is there a Greek fan out there that really believes that we can score against Spain?
The only thing going for the Greek team is that with Spain having already qualified, they may come out less intense and with a second-string team. It is the only glimmer of hope we have to maybe score a goal. Not win the last game.
Greece is the only team in the tournament to not have scored a goal yet and also the only team to not have made a single point. I don’t mean to be so negative but there isn’t much to be positive about this Euro 2008 campaing for Greece. Rehagel brought an old team to the tournament. Many on the squad should’ve been replaced with younger players with proper succession plans that needed to be in place after the Euro 2004 triumph.
However it’s easy to be critical when you are watching the games from the comfort of your lounge room, without the weight of the world’s Hellenic population having such great expectations from you and your squad.
Rehagel will go down in history as the man who brought the European Championship to Greece. No one will ever take that away from him or from the players.
There is something else that is comforting for us Hellas fans …
Greece is not the first defending European champion to not progress to the second round. The Czech’s who won in 1976 did not progress in the second round in 1980; the Danes who won in 1992 did not progress to the second round in 1996; the Germans who won in 1996 didn’t make it to the second round in 2000. France won in 2000 and made it to the second round only to be defeated by the Greeks. So we are in good company and not unique in our dissapointment.
Greece and Turkey arrived at the Euro 2008 tournament from the same qualification group. Greece topped the group and Turkey needed results in the last few games to grab the second qualification spot. For those that can remember, or for us that try desperately to forget, Turkey defeated us in Athens 1-4. Very simply, it was a rout and it was on the eve of Greek Independence day. Turkey outplayed us in every department and were the convincing victors of the night.
Greece managed to take revenge back when they managed a 0-1 win away in the return leg. Greece did play well but over the two games we now know who has the more resilient side.
This morning Turkey were down 2-0 with just under half an hour left in their match against the Czechs. Yet, they rallied on and managed to claw back a hard earned victory and a place in a quarter-final match with the Croatians. Momentum is definitely with the Turkish side even though Croatia will start as favorites.
prof@skylproductions.com
