Germany look comfortable favourites to beat Greece and book their place in the semi-finals, where they will face either England or Italy.
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Germany look comfortable favourites to beat Greece and book their place in the semi-finals, where they will face either England or Italy.
Germany won all three of their group games at the Euros for the first time – a statistic that is increasingly ominous when one considers they were paired with Holland, Portugal and Denmark.
The Greeks opened the tournament, playing against Poland, and held the co-hosts to a 1-1 draw despite having Sokratis Papastathopoulos harshly sent off.
And after a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Czech Republic, Greece’s hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals appeared minimal.
But a shock 1-0 victory over Russia, courtesy of Giorgos Karagounis who was making his 120th cap, knocked their opponents out, leaving Greece dreaming of repeating their Euro 2004 success.
They will be without their 35-year-old match-winner however, after he received a controversial booking when the referee deemed him to have dived when there was clearly contact in the box.
In their victory over Russia, Greece had eight shots compared to 31 from their opponents – Russia also had 69% of possession, showing that the Greeks were lucky to make it to the quarters.
Germany will provide stiff opposition for the Greeks, and have more of a cutting-edge than any of the sides Greece will have encountered so far.
Mario Gomez earned Germany victories in their first two games, heading them to a 1-0 win over Portugal, before a top-quality brace sealed a 2-1 win against Holland.
And Germany secured their 14th consecutive competitive victory with another 2-1 win, this time over Denmark, following a late winner from Lars Bender, to top their group.
The streak is an all-time record in German football history, and reinforces the notion that Joachim Löw’s men are one of the favourites to win Euro 2012.
With an attacking thrust of Arsenal-bound Lukas Podolski and Thomas Müller either side of Gomez, the Germans will offer a substantial threat that the Greeks won’t be able to cope with.
They possess talent all over the field, and should be fancied to beat an obdurate and hard-working Greek side fairly comfortably once the deadlock has been broken.
Score prediction: Germany 2-0 Greece
Link to www.absoluteradio.co.uk/euro2012.
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