|
The Greek national football team represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos. Greece is one of the most successful national teams in European football, being one of only nine national teams to have won the European Championship.
They hadn't produced any big successes in major tournaments, having participated only twice in the final tournaments of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship, in 1994 and 1980 respectively, until UEFA Euro 2004, when they became European champions in only their second participation in the tournament. The Greeks, dismissed as rank outsiders before the tournament with bookmakers giving odds of between 80–1 to 150–1 for them to win, defeated some of the favourites in the competition including defending champions France and hosts Portugal, who Greece beat in both the opening game of the tournament and again in the final.
Since that victory Greece have qualified for the finals of all but one major competitions, reaching the quarter-finals of Euro 2012. Moreover, they have occupied a place in the top 20 of the FIFA World Rankings for all but four months since the 2004 triumph, and reached a high of eighth from April to June 2008, as well as in October 2011.
|
