THERE'S a strong sense that moving on from Otto Rehhagel, who so famously guided the national side to European Championship glory in 2004, provided a boost to the Greece team and they impressed under Portuguese boss Fernando Santos when reaching the quarter-finals at Euro 2012 and during their World Cup qualification campaign.

 

Outright odds: 200/1

To win group: 7/1

To qualify: 7/4

 

Full squad: Orestis Karnezis (Granada), Panagiotis Glykos (PAOK), Stefanos Kapino (Panathinaikos), Kostas Manolas, Giannis Maniatis, Jose Holebas (all Olympiacos), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Borussia Dortmund), Giorgios Tzavellas (PAOK), Loukas Vyntra (Levante), Vasilis Torosidis (Roma), Vangelis Moras (Verona), Alexandros Tziolis (Kayserispor), Andreas Samaris (Olympiacos), Kostas Katsouranis (PAOK), Giorgos Karagounis (Fulham), Panagiotis Tachtsidis (Torino), Ioannis Fetfatzidis (Genoa), Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (Bologna) Panagiotis Kone (Bologna), Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK), Giorgios Samaras (Celtic), Kostas Mitroglou (Fulham), Theofanis Gekas (Konyaspor).

Manager: Fernando Santos

World Cup record: Group stage (1994, 2010)

How they qualified (most recent first): Greece only missed out on automatic qualification from UEFA's Group G on goal difference and had to settle for second behind Bosnia-Herzegovina after both teams finished with 25 points. It was only against Group G's eventual winners that the Greeks dropped points after a 0-0 draw at home and a 3-1 defeat in Zenica. They carried their excellent form into the play-offs against Romania and ran out 4-2 aggregate winners, claiming a 3-1 win in the home leg and drawing 1-1 in the return fixture.

v Romania (away) 1-1 (HT 1-0) Mitroglou 23

v Romania (home) 3-1 (HT 2-1) Mitroglou 14, 66 Salpingidis 20

v Liechtenstein (home) 2-0 (HT 1-0) Salpingidis 7 Karagounis 81

v Slovakia (home) 1-0 (HT 1-0) OG 44

v Latvia (home) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Salpingidis 58

v Liechtenstein (away) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Mitroglou 72

v Lithuania (away) 1-0 (HT 1-0) Christodoulopoulos 20

v Bosnia-Herzegovina (away) 1-3 (HT 0-2) Gekas 90+3

v Slovakia (away) 1-0 (HT 0-0) Salpingidis 63

v Bosnia-Herzegovina (home) 0-0 (HT 0-0)

v Lithuania (home) 2-0 (HT 0-0) Ninis 55 Mitroglou 72

v Latvia (away) 2-1 (HT 0-1) Spyropoulos 57 Gekas 69

Goalscorers: Konstantinos Mitroglou scored five times throughout qualification, including three goals in the two legged play-off with Romania. Dimitris Salpingidis was close behind with four, while Theofanis Gekas (two) was the only other Greek player to find the net more than once.

Half-time/full-time: Four of Greece's nine victories came from winning at half-time, four came from being level at half-time and the very first match against Latvia was the only time they came from behind at the break to claim the win.

Clean sheets: Greece kept an impressive eight clean sheets from their 10 regulation qualification games, but conceded in both legs of the play-off against Romania. Three of their clean sheets came away from home.

Win to nil: Seven of Greece's nine wins were 'to nil', five of which were 1-0 scorelines. Three of the five came in away games against Slovakia, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.

Cards: Counting reds as two, Greece games produced 68 cards at just over 5.6 per game. Greece received two red cards throughout their 12 qualification matches, but only 28 of the total 68 cards were shown to Greek players.

Other competitive internationals: Not applicable - Greece's previous competitive football came at Euro 2012 where they lost 4-2 to Germany in the last eight.

Build-up (most recent 1st): Greece have only played three times since booking their berth in the finals and have failed to score. Two clean sheets - both against fellow qualifiers - add more evidence for their defensive strength, though.

v Nigeria (neutral) 0-0 (HT 0-0)

v Portugal (away) 0-0 (HT 0-0)

v South Korea (home) 0-2 (HT 0-1)

 

Team verdict: There's a strong sense that moving on from Otto Rehhagel, who so famously guided the national side to European Championship glory in 2004, provided a boost to the Greece team and they impressed under Portuguese boss Fernando Santos when reaching the quarter-finals at Euro 2012 and during their World Cup qualification campaign.

They were a shade unlucky not to win the group as a points total of 25 from their 10 games would have been enough to see them through as winners in five of the other eight groups in Europe.

But they didn't falter against Romania in the potentially tricky play-off, in which they had to play away from home in the second leg, and fully deserve their place in the finals.

Santos will step down as manager after the summer but that isn't likely to have much of an effect on how his team operate. The draw could have been much worse and although they'll be considered the whipping boys by many in this group, it's worth noting the amount of clean sheets they have kept under Santos and that five of their nine victories in total came via a 1-0 scoreline.